Tania Candiani

Arpa eólica (Wind harp) is a permanent installation conceived for the Valle de Guadalupe, a Wine-growing area in northern Mexico that was covered by the sea, thousands of years ago. The piece is located in the middle of the field, on a promontory, and oriented in such a way that it receives the Santa Ana winds as well as those that come from the north. The decision to use the boats was for the way acoustically these can function as resonators, but also to refer to the time when that semi-desert area was covered by the sea.
A Wind harp is a musical instrument played by the wind. The wind vibrating the strings produces pitches of the overtone series of harmonics. The sound of the instrument depends on the strength of the wind passing over the strings and on atmospheric factors. It can range from a barely audible hum to a loud scream.
The piece is based on a resonance box and four boats that work as acoustic resonators with 12 strings 24 meters long stretched along two bridges.