Éric La Casa
Barrières Mobiles
SWARMING COLLECTION PARIS 014 CD (2024)
Fields recordings and documentary recordings from this Parisian sound artist – subtitled La Parc de la Villette raconté par une série de barrières mobiles.
Ever-alert to the changes in the city he calls his home, La Casa has observed the spread of these metal barriers across Paris, erected by the authorities in public spaces, a process which has been underway since 2015 (if not earlier). He’s not happy about it. Usually it’s a means of controlling the populace, maintaining public order and crowd control, often in response to some form of emergency; for instance, the 2020 pandemic, the terrorist attacks of 2015, or even the fireworks on Bastille Day. (Although I never attend the New Years fireworks events in central London, I’m assuming that similar metal barriers are also put in place to hem us in.) There’s no consultation with the people about the erection of these fences, notes La Casa, nor are we told why, or how long they will remain in place.
Using his intellect, he propounds the poignant question “what and who are we protecting ourselves from?”, and in search of answers, he took his contact mics around Parc de La Villette. He also took his camera, and several full colour images are published in the accompanying booklet. I guess when you start looking for these metal fences, they start to appear everywhere, and even without the foreboding yellow sign ROUTE BARRÉE affixed to one of them, these photographs start to tell an unsettling tale. More than one image here manages to foreground the barriers and leaves the background out of focus; Jean-Luc Godard could probably have written a whole essay about that touch, but whether subconsciously or not it does convey the artist’s intentions through a visual subtext. The photos also reveal his simple recording technique, that of clipping his mics directly onto the metal uprights, the better to document the tremors and shocks that passed through these gates, whether that agency was the weather, the effects of crowds, or the entire environment. Perhaps he sees the gates as conductors of some sort; perhaps part of this project is to take note of the subtle motions of the gates as they stand implacably in place, like stern sentinels.
He did some of it in the relative ease of the “paysage”, while tracks 8-14 took place during “des événements”, and the noise of the shouting crowds (whether celebrating or otherwise) is pushed into the background, accidentally conveying a bleak, dystopian suggestion of modern urban life. Other recordings took place on windy days, and cold aesthetically-rich drones are the audio result. As long-term readers will already know, Éric La Casa is constantly documenting the urban environs of Paris from his personal point of view, often seeking out overlooked features and sites, always asking questions about the meanings of places and objects, and pretty much doing so on a daily basis – patiently building up these audio diaries. This new work aligns completely with his plan, and (like his other works) forms a valuable document to help us understand the modern city. Future historians will cherish these recordings for the information they pass on. From 8th March 2024.