Month: March 2023

An interview which balances delicately between danger, flirtation and discomfort… Belgian audio artist Katharina Smets presents a poetic encounter with a writer called ‘Writer’.

This was the third part of a series called ‘Detroit Detour’, produced in collaboration with the musician Inne Eysermans for VPRO in the Netherlands. The series was made possible by the support of the Dutch Cultural Media Fund.

Katharina Smets is an audio artist and independent radio producer for the national radio in Belgium and the Netherlands. With a background in philology, philosophy and theatre, she learned how to make radio thanks to a small anarchistic free radio in her hometown near Brussels. Later she had the chance to learn about radio in London and in the US. History and art are important guidelines when building a story, but the heart of every piece for her is the clumsy, awkward, hesitating human voice.

Katharina teaches radio documentary at the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp and coaches news reporters at the national broadcaster in Belgium. She is the proud curator of In The Dark‘s Belgian branch.

For five years the radio producer Jonathan Zenti has been making recordings with elderly Italians that explore old cultural rites in his country that are in danger of disappearing.

Imelda, who appears in this short documentary, was one of the voices Zenti happened to capture for this ongoing project. The prayer she says to San Antonio would traditionally be used to rediscover very important lost items – wedding rings, documents, jewels etc – but at the time the only thing Zenti was keen to recover was his lost t-shirt.

‘I Am Analog’ won the Create GanBéarla Award at the 2015 HearSay International Audio Festival

Jonathan Zenti is a radio producer from Verona in Italy. In his spare time he teaches radio, focusing on projects which encourage social change. In 2015 he started ‘MIRP‘, the meeting of independent radio producers, with a group of like-minded producers from Europe and America. His programmes have been in the official Prix Europa selection a number of times.