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Sonia Leber and David Chesworth

5000 Calls

Installation on Shoemaker's Bridge, Ljubljana, Slovenia
June 2003

Space-Shifter
Rewards of Silence
Landing Place
Almost Always Everywhere Apparent
Oceanic Endless
Reiterations (Elizabeth Street)
Proximities
Gordon Assumption
The Persuaders
Polymerous
The Master's Voice
5000 Calls
David Chesworth Music




listen to excerpt (4')
5000 Calls Sydney - 5000 Calls Cardiff


Shoemaker's Bridge (1932) in Ljubljana provided an altogether different setting for 5000 Calls. It forms part of architect Joze Plecnik’s river axis through the centre of Ljubljana, standing on the site of a former bridge on which butchers and later shoemakers had their shops.

Shoemaker’s Bridge is one of a sequence of key architectural events designed by Plecnik to be encountered on foot along the banks of the Ljubljanica River, a testament to Plecnik’s privileging of the pedestrian.

Unusually wide, the historic footbridge functions as a central piazza and meeting place over the river, right in the heart of the city.

We utilised the surrounding neoclassical columns as twelve fixed points of sound, and carefully configured a version of 5000 Calls specifically for this site.

'Extraordinarily successful. The effect is arresting, literally stopping passers-by
in their tracks...

'In Ljubljana, I saw a man tap his hasty companion on the shoulder, cupping the other hand to his ear to draw attention to the soundscape…precipitating a lively five-minute debate… Other passersby stayed over an hour, smoking silently in the sun.'
Bleddyn Butcher, The Wire, London, July 2003

Commissioned by Cankarjev Dom Arts Centre, with support from Arts Victoria

Find out more about the concept and sound sources in connection with the original installation in Sydney, or see another setting of the work in Cardiff.