RADIO ART ARCHIVE
 
Anosmia
2013, 43:38 min.
Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman
Anosmia was produced in 2013 by Aurélie Lierman. Lierman was born in Rwanda and has spent much of her life in Belgium and the Netherlands, where she currently lives. The title Anosmia refers to a condition where a nose has been injured and cannot smell. Lierman writes: “Anosmia is an abstract reflection on the absurd fact that a tiny part of the body, the nose, played a key role in the Rwandan Genocide In 1994. In the early 1990’s Hutu extremists started broadcasting hate messages via public radio, against Tutsi people...[I]f you had a long and thin nose you were considered a Tutsi, so you had to hide or run for your life. Nowadays it is by law forbidden to use the word Tutsi or Hutu” [in Rwanda]. The text you hear in the piece is a poem by David Mwambari entitled "Politics Of The Nose." Anosmia is an example of what Lierman calls Afrique concrète, a reference to musique concrète, an experimental collage approach to sound and radio composing that emerged in the 1940s. Anosmia was commissioned for the Austrian radio program Kunstradio as part of a series called Fearless Radio curated by Anna Raimondo and Younes Baba-Ali. Composition, Concept & Realisation: Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman. Performers: Francisco Couto (trb), Momoko Noguchi (prep pno), Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman (prep pno, voice, electronics). Text: Politics Of The Nose by David Mwambari. - Described or Introduced by Wave Farm Radio Artist Fellow 2019/2020, Karen Werner.