Stattbad

STATTBAD Wedding is pleased to announce The Sound of No-One, its contribution to the inaugural Digital Art & Sound Weekend (DAS Weekend) featuring works by Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri, Douglas Henderson and Guido Canziani Jona. DAS Weekend – presented by transmediale, ctm/clubtransmediale and Create Berlin – aims to draw attention to the many artists, spaces and initiatives active in Berlin. On the weekend prior to the transmediale 2011, DAS Weekend will promote artistic work and discourse in the converging zones between digital arts, experimental music and sound art.

Above all, The Sound of No-One focuses on the ability of sound to render tangible the inaccessible and hidden. With that, the exhibition is offering a way to reflect on questions of a drastically modernized society. 

Whilst some of the exhibited pieces have a physical body, it is primarily the field of the sound through which meaning emerges. In the exhibition, however, this sound is not connected to a human agent that creates it. This absence of a performer, this vacant space inevitably invites questions on where we find ourselves in a time of radically renegotiated human relationships. The Sound of No-One invites the listener into the realm of a sound that ranges between the hauntingly beautiful and the brutally sharp. The works enable us to reflect on ourselves and our belonging in a world of modern technologies that challenge more than anything the position of the human agent.

Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri`s Connector implies a sonic interaction between instruments/sound objects that are connected to mechanical devices by nylon lines, both of which were previously presented in the form of a live performance. The same instruments/sound objects are now able to produce sounds autonomously, independent of a performer. In this work, two string instruments are connected by a nylon line tied to one of their strings. A rotating mechanical device activates the nylon line to transmit sound between the two connected instruments. The Connector aims to challenge the function of the traditional musical instruments by displacing them in "non-musical" contexts. Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri works with international artists like Pe Lang and Luisa Greenfield, and composes for the ensemble Mosaik, the Electronic Music Studio (Stockholm) and the Orchestra Volharding (Amsterdam). She is involved in a variety of festivals such as the Process Festival (Berlin), Wien Modern Festival (Vienna), Carlsbad Music Festival (Los Angeles) and the Etcetera Festival (San Diego). 

Music from Empty Holes is Douglas Henderson’s most operatic study in sonic and phenomenological resonance. Appropriately presented for this installation in the empty Small Swimming Pool of STATTBAD, the title comes from a 2500 year old philosophical text by Chuang Tzu, which speaks of the need for emotional contradiction as the foundation of human life. An empty milk jug in a rainstorm, empty pipes on a windy hill, and the interior of a woodstove: these are the materials for a stunning electro-acoustic symphony, which turns the world inside out to reveal the secrets of enclosed spaces and their unheard songs.  A 2007 guest of the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm, Henderson currently shows in international museums and galleries, like Pierogi Gallery in (New York City), Galerie Mario Mazzoli (Berlin), Museo San Francesco (San Marino), and major art fairs such as the Art Cologne, ArtForum Berlin, The Armory Show and Art Basel Miami.

The work of Guido Canziani Jona is characterized by the desire to catch the structure of the soul. Each piece is designed to be the physical space where contradictions coexist as an identical construct - just as it is the case with harmony and rhythm in dynamical music. Canziani comprehends the body of his works as a structure which needs to emerge fully and timelessly. The same can be said for the acoustic elements of his works which are embodied via digital sound carriers. Both parts, the physical and the acoustic, therefore possess a distinct organic quality - just like bones and blood for the human being. Sound composition and physical installation are created simultaneously and grow together without one part being able to exist without the other. It is precisely the assonance of these two physical experiences - seeing and hearing - which creates an atmosphere in which all senses can achieve a united tension. Guido Canziani Jona`s works are exhibited internationally. In 2010, his work was featured in the 1st Landart Biennal in the Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery.

Guido Canziani Jona will be attending the vernissage on 28 January. Douglas Henderson and Guido Canziani Jona are represented by Galerie Mario Mazzoli in Berlin.