The Bogong Symphony

In July 2019, researcher and curator Leandro Pisano and multidisciplinary artist Daniela d’Arielli visited for the first time the village of Bogong, located in the heart of the Alpine National Park in Australia. During this visit, planned as part of a residency project organised by the BCSC and curated by Philip Samartzis and Madelynne Cornish, the two experience the passage through scattered rural settlements, forests and waterways marked by the massive presence of hydroelectric power stations. Built in the 1930s and 1940s by the State Electricity Commission (S.E.C.) for workers and their families during the construction of the Kiewa Hydroelectric Project, Bogong is surrounded by dense forests and is home to four hydroelectric dams: Clover, West Kiewa, Mackay Creek and AGL Bogong, which power 122,000 homes, or 3% of Victoria’s electricity grid.

“The Bogong Symphony” is the result of this experience and is an audio-visual work that combines field recording, voice and photography. Realised by Giuseppe Cordaro (sound design) and Leandro Pisano (field recording), with photography by Daniela d’Arielli, video editing by Alessandra Sanvito and vocals by Giada Maria Goglia, this project bears witness to the artistic residency undertaken by Pisano and d’Arielli in the Australian Alps in July 2019. Exactly five years after this journey, the artists explore and document through this work the traces and resonances of a journey to rethink the political ecology of rural and remote territories, challenging and expanding the very concept of ‘rural’ through unexpected and unpredictable approaches.

Supported by the Italian Institute of Culture in Melbourne

Click here for The Bogong Symphony.