Penstock (LP)

Penstock, 2023-25

For the first Son Biennale (2023), Christian Marclay created a unique performance in the former Chandoline hydroelectric power station, once fed by 16 km of penstock from the Grande Dixence dam. Struck by the immensity of these empty pipes, he imagined them as an immense instrument. An access port, located 4.5 km upstream, was opened to serve as an entry point.

EDHEA's sound specialists installed microphones and immersive sound diffusion in the turbine hall. Steel balls proved unusable, so golf and tennis balls - donated by local clubs - were dropped from the mountain, resonating seconds later in the hall. Guided remotely by Marclay, the event became a sonic portrait of a sleeping industrial monument. The recording, mixed with Alain Renaud, reproduces only natural reverberation: bullets resonating in a colossal pipe.