This international group exhibition shows a broad spectrum of possibilities for sounds, tones, and noises in fine art. The multilayered works respond acoustically to the specifics of the museum’s architecture and thus invite an exploration of how the space is experienced with the senses and in time.
The invited artists use the potential of sounds to convey something physically absent or remote in space or time in order to focus on time, space, and memories. The sound-based works presented in the exhibition by Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Mikhail Karikis, and Lydia Ourahmane thus employ various methods to produce inner images that oscillate between presence and transience. Ghislaine Leung transmits live a radio broadcast from another time zone into the exhibition. The artist is alluding to radio’s fascinating quality of appearing to bridge time and space between places.
Memories are formed not only visually by images but also by multisensory impressions. Music and song accompany us all our lives. This is demonstrated especially well in the sound pieces and films by Jeremy Deller, Susan Philipsz, and Hannah Weinberger, which appeal to music and the emotions associated with it through both our collective and individual memories.
Sound as a supposedly intangibly medium is addressed in a variety of ways in the exhibition. Aviva Silverman, for example, uses the medium of sound to make the physical dimension visible by means of sinus tones and a relief in the room. In these site-specific works developed for the exhibition, Silverman uses the curved walls and surfaces of the Frank Gehry–designed building and at the same time involves the human body as a resonating volume.
The works in the exhibition by the artists Liza Sylvestre and Christine Sun Kim address how hearing-impaired and Deaf people experience daily life in a majority society of the hearing. They make it clear how much hearing is taken for granted in society. To make it easier for people with hearing impairments to participate, transcriptions are also part of the exhibition display. In addition, the introduction to the exhibition is available in German Sign Language.
In the building’s central Dome Gallery (420 sq m, height: 23 meters), thirteen sound works were arranged into a spatial and temporal score lasting one and a half hours. The works face the center of the room, from where the sequence of pieces can be experienced acoustically but also visually.
Different elements in the room are activated. For example, once during the 1.5 hours, The Bell (2015/2019) by the Iraqi artist Hiwa K is struck by a museum employee. The church bell is made from Iraqi military equipment that was melted down. The artist reversed the process by which in times of war everything usable, including church bells, is turned into war materials.
The work by Michaela Melián can also be experienced spatially and visually. In Movement (2020), she translated the route the violinist Susanne Lachmann took when fleeing the National Socialists into notation for violin—it is present in the exhibition as an installation with light bulbs.
Purely acoustic works can also be experienced spatially here by means of loudspeakers. These works represent different approaches to the medium of sound. For example, the very early and only rarely presented sound work Seriation #2: Now (1968) by Adrian Piper, a philosopher and pioneer of American Conceptual art, directs the visitors’ attention to the moment and its passing. Over a period of twenty minutes, the artist speaks the word “now” at ever-shorter intervals.
The Algerian artist Lydia Ourahmane makes it clear in her presentation of the “silent” piece 4’33” (for John) (2020) by the American composer John Cage from 1952 that “silent” does not mean the absence of audible impressions but rather sounds that differ depending on the time and place.
For Mikhail Karikis’ Sounds from Beneath (2011–2012), a choir of former miners recalled the noises of their work in the mines and interpreted them vocally.
In rooms dedicated to their work, Sung Tieu, Susan Philipsz, and Michaela Melián address other aspects of the theme of sound. The artist Sung Tieu is concerned in her works with how sounds can affect the body and the psyche. She shows works about so-called Havana Syndrome, in which physical discomforts were triggered by strange sounds allegedly produced by the military.
Her room is followed by an installation by the artist Susan Philipsz, who is also represented in the Dome by the vocal piece that inspired the title of the exhibition: Long Gone (2006). It is in turned named after a song by Syd Barrett from 1969. Barrett was a founding member of the psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd.
The second work by Michaela Melián in the exhibition’s final gallery (three) is a new site-specific production. It is a four-change sound piece for four shell-shaped loudspeaker sculptures. The composition is a portrait composed of sounds from the Museum Marta Herford. The tones H [German for B]-E-F-D (for Herford) supplement this selective field recording by the artist and musician and lead us back to the themes of the perception of space.
This group exhibition shows a total of 28 works by 17 international contemporary artists and duos of different generations. Jeremy Deller, Aviva Silverman, Michaela Melián, and Ghislaine Leung have created new site-specific works for the exhibition.
Partecipating artists: Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Jeremy Deller, Gina Folly, Hiwa K, Mikhail Karikis, Hassan Khan, Christine Sun Kim, Ghislaine Leung, Michaela Melián, Olaf Nicolai, Lydia Ourahmane, Susan Philipsz, Adrian Piper, Aviva Silverman, Liza Sylvestre, Sung Tieu, and Hannah Weinberger
at MARTa Herford
until February 25, 2024