SASKIA CALDERÓN
Curare




Title:Curare
Modality: Video-Performance
Duration: 3 minutes 58 seconds
Year: 2023
I sing the curare poison component TUBOCURARIN with my diaphragm paralyzed. The native stone lies on my diaphragm and abdominal muscles.
I sing through a system of musical interpretation. I assign a letter of the alphabet to each key on the piano in conjunction with my vocal register, so that I can play the word of the component and sing using my voice and the piano.
In lyrical singing, the vocal muscles must be supported, but too much weight causes discomfort.
In the project, the poison and the native stone kill lyrical singing, and although in lyrical singing we need the diaphragm to control the air, this is affected by the stone weight on the body and causes more effort. The movement of breath and muscles in singing becomes overwork.
The curare poison blocks and paralyzes all skeletal muscles, including the respiratory muscles, causing death by suffocation.
In the piece, the native stone paralyzes the lyric singing, the poison paralyzes the lyric singing, in my mixing, I kill the lyric singing to find the lost vocal tone. The piece is based on decolonization with elements of a place in cultural contact with western singing.