1995-2020

Cec Espill 3
Cec Espill 3 is a work that has its origins in two previous proposals dating back to 1995: Cec Espill, 5 and Cec Espill 4.

In 2020, Vacca decided to rectify Cec Espill 4, and to build a new unpublished work: Cec Espill 3.

In this case he builds a zenithal assemblage, hanging from the ceiling, in which 2 of the artist’s shoes, some Fate l’amore non la guerra symbols of different sizes and in different levels of wear and 3 boombox players that loop fragments of the famous study no. 9 OP.10 by Frédéric Chopin with the addition of an echo. This fragment is considered by Vacca to be one of the most dramatic in Chopin’s repertoire.
When the system sounds in unison, a continuous acoustic climate of construction and destruction of Chopin’s well-known etude appears.

Musical fragments and silences are endlessly interspersed, provoking favourable and unfavourable coincidences in the listener’s mental memory of the original piece of music.

All these elements are presented in a disorderly order that is supported by wires and cables, descending from the ceiling.

The work becomes a sound sculpture that also works in silence.

Cec, de no es necesario verla.

Espill, of mirror reflecting one’s own image.

3, repetition.

This work condenses some of the constants in Vacca’s career, such as the presence of sound as a corporeal element with plastic qualities, materialising in the space of the action as a sculptural object; the musical mismatch that generates semi-controlled combinations; or the humorous component.

With this work, paradigmatic within the artist’s corpus, Vacca once again reaffirms his desire for his works to be a fulminating, ultra-slow response.

Cec Espill 4
With the unusual idea of indefinitely and randomly extending Frédéric Chopin’s Étude núm. 9 OP.10, I recorded a 15” fragment on a 30’’  long TDK ENDLESS CASSETTE EC-30S; I repeated the procedure on three other tapes with 3 different fragments. The tapes were modified previously at his longitude to provoke temporary mismatches at its continued playing.

Thus, when I played the tapes together a continuous acoustic climate was produced that constructed and destroyed the celebrated Étude by Chopin.

The musical fragments and the silences overlapped each other endlessly, causing coincidences that were favourable and unfavourable to the ear and to the mental recollection of the original Étude.

The piece was displayed by means of a rudimentary, clumsy and provisional playback system, identical in each reproduction set and placed in an ascending or descending line according to the order chosen to view it in.

Cec (blindman), from you don’t need to see it.

Espill (mirror), from the mirror that reflects your own image.

4, repetition.

Cec Espill 5
When, for a few days, I had at my disposal an APPLE MACINTOSH computer that incorporated a MIDI system and the reproduction components necessary to simultaneously emit sound on 5 stereo channels, I constructed a passageway so that one heard 5 different musical excerpts on each pair of stereo loudspeakers installed along the way.

The few available scores inside the MAC provided fragments of Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Georg Friedrich Händel, George Gershwin, Scott Joplin, Wofgang Amadeus Mozart and a musical fragment from Star Wars.

As one moved down the passageway, the acoustic transitions between one pair of loudspeakers and the next, from one sound to another, were modulated by the general characteristics of the system: all the compositions had been transported to the same musical tone and were reproduced at the same musical tempo, as if it were a single musical piece, meant to be heard as a whole as the listener moved along the suggested way.

If one stopped in front of a particular pair of loudspeakers one only heard that fragment. When it came to the end it started once more at the beginning, indefinitely.

The musical perception varied depending on the speed at which one advanced along the passage, as one would hear a longer or shorter amount of each fragment.

Thus, the visitor could chose, or be submitted, to different perceptions according to his or her attitude along the way.

At a distance from the system the sounds interfered with each other becoming unrecognisable.

You could only hear it if you came up close.

Cec (Blindman), the image blunted by sound.

Espill (Mirror), reflected in music.

5, passageway.