Shilpa Gupta: You are the Place

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Artist Shilpa Gupta connects and collects stories with different communities to create a thought-provoking sound installation in Rochdale.

You are the place is a new sound installation by artist Shilpa Gupta on display in Rochdale – a hub for people arriving and moving through the area. Over the past year, the artist has worked with local communities, including recent immigrants and asylum seekers, to create the installation.

Through workshops supported by local groups, participants were invited to respond to questions like: Is there something you think about very often? What is it? Have you left it behind somewhere? Where? Do you miss it?

Capturing their thoughts through drawings and writing, their responses were shared with local songwriters who composed verses in some of the many languages spoken in Rochdale – Ukrainian, English, Urdu, Portuguese, Cantonese, Punjabi, Polish and Arabic. These verses were then brought to life by a constellation of voices from within the communities and beyond.

The different voices and languages are woven into the sound installation like pieces of memory, crossing invisible borders and speaking of longing and movement.

You are the place reflects how each individual is made up of many experiences and memories. As we move through life and the world, we carry these fragments and places within our bodies.

The work opens up a space where visitors are encouraged to feel rather than seek explanation. It invites us into a liminal space where the known and unknown live side by side, and where identity and place are constantly shifting.

Drifting across languages, places and our inner landscapes, You are the place invites us to pause, listen and consider new ways of imagining ourselves and each other.