Anechoïc bell

Residency and personal exhibition, Bon Sauveur Foundation, Bégard, France, 2013.
Personal exhibition, Cultural Center Le Cap, Plérin, France, 2015.

229 cm (diameter) X 204 cm (height). Wood and Kassel earth, insulating materials, including jute and beeswax, aluminum plates and strips, anechoic recording studio foam.

The anechoic bell protects against sound and electro-magnetic waves thanks to specific insulation: the acoustic foam on the inside covers a Faraday cage made of aluminum panels, while on the outside Kassel earth (brown-black pigment) completes the magnetic insulation. The walls are filled with hemp felt impregnated with beeswax for additional dielectric effect.
The anechoic bell takes the shape of real bells of this size which resonate in the low frequences; it has an impact on sound attenuation but also on the body: in fact, the harmonics of the bells are due to their alloy but also to their shape.
The very strongly attenuated external sounds induce the sensation of being physically far from the space that one has just left by closing the bell door.

The bell offers an intense bodily immersion, thanks to the combination of its insulation, its shape, its obscurity and the silence it allows; exposed face to face with EDC, it leads to a complementary physiological process.