Imagine a tree canopy – you in it. Far above the ground. Sounds of leaves crunching from the wind surround you. It is hot and you have just come out from above the ground. After 17 years spent gathering impressions, sucking on tree roots. You are well rested. Ready to sing. And so you do... coming from the belly of the earth, you bring knowledge. An enchanting yet unknown frequency. You have heard the Earth move. You have inspected it. You bring riddles and speculative prophecies. You would have brought them if you hadn’t been M.I.A.
A heave! Long awaited to be heard.
Look In! I am no canopy - I am a Messenger is a work that takes particles of different eras and disciplines. It looks into speculative zoology/entomology, but predominantly the historical and biological attributes of Magicicada septendecim while in a parallel manner analysing an Orthodox chant. The specific brood XI is believed to be extinct since 1954. There were speculations about brood being found again in 1988 − these speculations were never confirmed.
The work draws a strong reference from the book Insect Singers: A Natural History of the Cicadas (1929). It creates its new hybrid myth: an insect-morphic orthodox prophecy. A reincarnation of Brood XI (whose year of coming out from underground would be biologically- historically 2022) who has come to seduce us into an act of courting the world with an act of the most romantic call − giving out the speculative prophecy. Translating a new hybrid myth, from these sentinel species, we bring news of climate-love in the era of scarcity.
Now, finally, we are able to understand the frequency.
Music and text for this experimental prophecy were written using references from the Orthodox chants but deconstructed towards a different context, riddle-like, abstract thoughts about climate change, famine, anxieties, etc. Behind every choral composition is a myth of our time connected to each "calling/message".
Biography:
Sanja Anđelković (Novi Sad, 1991) is an audio-visual and textual investigative artist based between Novi Sad, Serbia, and Vienna, Austria. She examines parallels and how the idea of ‘home’ changes within the historical, geographical, social, and environmental context. Sanja draws references from different current phenomena and works with archives from different state institutions to create multi-layered works. Academically, she holds an MFA in New Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Novi Sad and is a PhD candidate at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien). Her professional artistic endeavours include art residencies and collaborations with British Council, BIOS and ATOLYE (Great Britain, Greece, Turkey), Risk Change (Hungary), Residency Unlimited (USA), and the Filmuni Konrad Wolf Babelsberg (Germany). He was awarded by the Prince Claus Fund (Netherlands, 2021), the 59th October Salon (Serbia, 2022), the Secondary Archive (Poland, 2022), and the Dimitrije Bašićević Mangelos Fund (Serbia, 2023), with a mention at the Festival Ars Electronica (Austria, 2021). Currently, she is cooperating with anthropologist Hsiu-ju Stacy Lo on a speculative CGI feature film.
