8 Apr 2008

#13 Silva's “Sanpietrini”



"When you are in a car, (or near one as in my case), which pass from the smooth tarmac to the sanpietrini, the tyres make a characteristic noise."..........Silva talking on the sound of the “sanpietrini”. Something very familiar in European cities.

Reading Silva's account of walking home and hearing the
“sanpietrini” as the car passed the guard hut gave me a flashback to when I lived in Bucharest's leafy diplomatic quarter during the nineties.

It also reminded me of by own borders. Borders are different things to different people.....

When I made this picture in the Royal palace, converted to the national museum after the communist takeover and during an exhibition on the '89Romanian revolution I could hear the continuous smack & rumble of the
“sanpietrini” outside in the "Revolution Square." It was as if the “sanpietrini” played to the gallery inside

You know, all that time I never knew there was a name for that sound.......thanks for that Silva.....ps. the picture is of the gallery on fire.