Tacet

Tacet (Anthems of the Member Nations of the North American Free Trade Agreement: Canada, United States of America, Mexican United States) is a three-channel video installation, each channel featuring an orchestral conductor  sight-reading the national anthem of one of the member states of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

All that is audible within the installation space are the incidental sounds of the conductors’ reading. When mentally conjuring the sounds of an orchestra, the readers’ involuntary movements, changes in breathing, or rustle of paper, manifest their sense of the music’s rhythm, volume, or a particularly dramatic moment in the score.