Zabo ChabilanD

VISUALS ARTS FR
Anatoms sonores
Neuzusammensetzung
Anatoms
Corps en suspens
Read Lips
Studies
The black project
Profiling Watermarks
Polyptyque
VOID Project
SOUND PERFORMANCES

CVBio Texts Infos News

© Zabo Chabiland 2026

ANATOMS SONORES
Edition of 250 discs pressed on X-ray film
2024

ANATOM SONORE XX
Excerpt from the sound performance Microsillons X, 3 min. X-ray film, 18 X 18 cm, 2024

BONE RECORD
Folk music from Géorgia.
7 “. (C. Zabo Chabiland).

ANATOM SONORE XII
Excerpt from the sound performance Microsillons X, 3 min. X-ray film, 18 X 18 cm, 2024

From Bone records to Anatoms Sonores

During the Cold War in the Soviet Union, bootleg records were illegally pressed onto discarded hospital X-ray films and circulated under the name Roentgenizdat (known today in the West as Bone Records or Ribs). As an act of cultural resistance, they carried Western music (particularly rock 'n' roll, jazz, and tango) as well as Russian folk songs and dissident music that could not be officially distributed under Soviet censorship.

Anatoms Sonore was inspired by this unique episode in the history of music and merges two essential media in my artistic practice: photography and sound performance.

In 1997, analog photography led me to medical imaging. By establishing a bridge between these two technologies, I began using X-ray film as my primary photographic support, initiating an exploration that has continued to evolve ever since.

The edition of 250 Anatoms Sonores brings together twenty photographs exploring waves and vibrations in their various forms: sonic, mechanical, electromagnetic and psychic. Each image is printed analogically in twelve unique copies, in positive or negative, with variations determined by the type of X-ray film (for hospital or veterinary use), by the manufacturer, and the film's expiration date (ranging from 1997 to 2024). An additional ten records were pressed onto blank X-ray films, revealing the diversity of X-ray films.

Microsillon X was conceived specifically to challenge the microgrooves. The setup of the performance consists of a large sheet of X-ray film placed on the soundboard of an upright piano activated by an electrical massage machine pressed at various points of the soundboard (wood, strings, metal) at the pace of one microgroove. The circular and repetitive sound that this action generates naturally finds its way into the microgrooves when played on a turntable, whatever their condition (wear, type of turntable, dust, etc.) and possibly evolve into loops autonomously.

This project was done with the support of the “Direction régionale des affaires culturelles (DRAC) des Pays de la Loire”. (Individual creation grant) and the Pays de la Loire region (Visual arts creation grant).

ANATOM SONORE 00