A Silent Opera for the Anthropogenic Mass

Sound installation by Joana Moll

24 October — 26 November 2023

Itineraries + Music

Online

A Silent Opera for Anthropogenic Mass is a sound installation by the artist Joana Moll which speaks of the difficulty of making visible climate change and the destruction of ecosystems. The work proposes a route that covers the Ramblas of Barcelona and can be heard online.

The installation was triggered by a study in Nature which revealed in 2020 that the weight of all the material generated by humans (concrete, bricks, asphalt, metals) had, for the first time, exceeded the total biomass of the planet, which is to say the mass of living organisms, including plants, animals, and microbes. Joana Moll has translated into sounds, on seven audio channels, data that show the constant but silent growth of materials produced by human beings between 1900 and 2020.

Listen to the opera

A project by Joana Moll
Sound Design: Roc Jiménez de Cisneros
Technical Development: Ramin Soleymani
Graphic Design: todojunto.net
Executive Producer: Marta Millet Agustí

A Silent Opera for Anthropogenic Mass, by Joana Moll, was commissioned by transmediale 2023 in co-production with the Ramon Llull Institute. The adaptation of this installation for the Rambla of Barcelona was suggested by Kosmopolis 23.