The Reverse Journey. A Sound Fresco through Romanesque Art

Preview: written before the show opened

In 2023, researching how the Romanesque churches of the Pyrenees sound, Ona Balló walked the old paths between them with the musician Arnau Obiols, recording as she went. One sound turned up at every church, often unnoticed until the microphones caught it: the river.

This installation brings sound recorded in six of those churches back to the murals taken out of them: the apses of Santa Maria d'Àneu, Sant Pere del Burgal, Esterri de Cardós, Ginestarre, Santa Maria de Taüll and Santa Eulàlia d'Estaon. You stand in front of a painted apse and hear the building it came from as it sounds now. The museum lists what the paintings lost in the move: the wind, the flocks, festivals in the square outside, liturgy and silence within.

It sits in the Romanesque collection rooms. On 30 November at 6 pm Balló leads a free tour and talk in Catalan for Friends of the Museum; registration opens 20 October at 10 am.