Pierre Gauvin

Readings from Sul

In relation to the rural voices of Gralheira my project resonates with “the voice that perpetuates the vocabulary”. I recorded people mainly from the village of Sul reading short texts. I was open to record all kinds of texts–recipes, letters, documents, personal writing etc. Learning to read and write was the most important aspect of reading to emerge out of my recordings of the voices from the Magaio villages. Persons of all ages who are learning to write, involved themselves in my project by reading from their own school compositions. Others read from educational text books meant for learning to read. My sound pieces in Readings from Sul demonstrate how school children and adults alike have been involved historically in this on going need in the region to study written communication. In another vein, two women read their recipes, reflecting an over looked facet of everyday life where recipes serve an important function in the process of cooking and nourishment.The recipes are part of one’s place in the community through sharing of them as well as one’s heritage being handed down across generations.

Born in 1959 in Montmagny, Pierre Gauvin grew up in Thetford Mines and Victoriaville in the province of Québec, Canada. He studied photography, film and electro-acoustic music at Concordia University in Montréal and he is a photographer, performer, electro-acoustic artist and writer.