Ssalute (2020)
Ssalute was a public artwork created during quarantine for the 2020 Aurora Biennial in Dallas, Texas, curated by Noam Segal. From the Aurora website: “Comprised of a drive-through sound installation occupying the upper floors of a parking structure in downtown Dallas and a nearby billboard, Marina Rosenfeld’s Ssalute was oriented around the spectator as a driver, enclosed in the protective skin of their vehicle, but subject nonetheless to an invitation to publicness in the form of a personal salute offered upon entry into the work by a live trumpet player—a role shared by noted Dallas-based musicians Raquel Samayoa and Freddie Jones. As drivers ascended the labyrinthine architecture of the carpark, a thickly amplified and augmented trumpet salutation followed them, echoing through the structure until they emerged onto the roof and the ambient sound of the city. In a separate location, passersby may have already encountered an image of Ssalute in the form of a billboard, suggesting a visual form to the experience that left space equally for presence, intimacy and alienation. A speculative work in relation to both experience and infrastructure— substituting the vacant carpark and its radical acoustic treatment for actual civic gathering space — Rosenfeld’s work was an enigmatic public proposal in a time of widespread isolation.”
