"Weaving, yearning" public sound installation by Kalle Nio and Hans Rosenstrom

About

"Weaving, Yearning" is the second chapter of A I S T I T / coming to our senses, a year-long series of exhibitions commissioned by the Finnish Institutes in the Benelux, France, Germany, and the UK and Ireland to explore the complexity and wonder of our sensory perceptions and how they shape us as human beings. Curators Hans Rosenström and Satu Herrala reflect on the topic of ‘senses’ (‘aistit’ in Finnish) and their physical, political and technological dimensions today. Bringing together multiple visual and performing artists working across different geographical locations, A I S T I T / coming to our senses unfolds a fragile world that is interconnected and full of nuances.

The song, composed by Aino Venna in dialogue with the artists, will play once a day for a duration of twenty minutes around the hour of sunset. It finds its inspiration from the evening sky and the precious air we all breathe. With its four voices, "Weaving, yearning" vibrates the air as it travels through it, reflecting off surrounding surfaces, moving on the skin of the bodies nearby, making its way inside the listener. The song reminds us of our shared existence and our interwoven lives that together form a delicate and temporary community.

"Weaving, yearning" is both a song and an event. It elevates a moment under the changing sky and is an invitation to sense the surrounding cityscape in all its glory. It offers the passer-by the chance to breathe in the atmosphere and its nuances, to take note that: I am here and you are here too. Let us listen. Let this song carry us together for ‘Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.’1

The past year has thrown into stark relief the ways in which our lives are interdependent and how singular events ripple through communities and across continents. The awareness of how mundane individual decisions may hold unforeseen consequences for
others has sharpened. Our entanglements can also be perceived as a remedy to lonely individualism and a vital invitation to attend to each other with care and tenderness. Weaving, yearning spreads over King’s Cross at dusk, summoning a gentle awareness of the presence of fellow beings nearby.

Where: Begins at Pancras Square
and ends at Granary Square, London N1C 4AG

When: Starts every day at 9 PM, duration 20 min.

Composer:
Aino Venna

Singers
Laura Salokoski 
David Hackston
Aino Venna 
Valter Maasalo

1 Letter to Joë Bousquet (13 Apr 1942) Quoted in Simone Pétrement, Simone Weil: A Life (1976) [tr. Rosenthal].