Giovanni Ozzola's 'Sin tiempo' Explores Silbo Gomero Whistling Language

In his video installation 'Sin tiempo' (2017), Italian artist Giovanni Ozzola captures the Silbo Gomero, a whistled language native to La Gomera in the Canary Islands. The work, which features a figure whistling the Silbo Gomero, is part of a broader reflection on communication and cultural heritage. The Silbo Gomero, recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009, transposes Spanish into modulated whistles using two vowels and four consonants, and can cover distances up to 5 kilometers. It has been taught in local schools since 1999. Ozzola's installation is discussed in an article that also references Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's observations of Venetian gondoliers singing stanzas from Torquato Tasso's 'Gerusalemme Liberata' and Ludovico Ariosto's 'Orlando Furioso' during his stay in Venice in 1786. The article, published on doppiozero.com, draws a parallel between these two forms of acoustic communication across different cultures and eras.