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| Garden of sounds Rihards Bražinskis, DJ, columnist Review of the SKAN II sound art exhibition at the University of Latvia Botanical Garden, Kalnciems Quarter and Pārdaugava wooden manor houses, 30.05–24.08.2014 | |
| Seven years have passed since the first SKAN exhibition arranged by Skaņu mežs took place at the former chicory and pasta factory near Arkādijas park. At the time, during the “fat years”, the bar was raised quite high for the exhibition in terms of content, it being the first sound art exhibition in the baltic States. Such a long wait for SKAN II has definitely been worthwhile; a large-scale tripartite event that could even be called a sound art festival has been rolled out all through summer. the botanical garden territory has been fully occupied by placing works in its various nooks and crannies. the botanical garden is the exhibition’s central location, while separate works have also been displayed in nearby neighbourhoods of pārdaugava. At the first SKAN, thickish brochures were dealt out free of charge; this exhibition has not even got fliers to take along as a souvenir. what’s more, SKAN II is acutely in need of a guide’s services. there is nothing but a map of the exhibition by the entrance to the garden, so one would do wise to take a picture of that to know later where to look for each work. The first stage of the exhibition consisted of works fully belonging, in terms of curatorship, to reSonAnce european Sound Art network; a skilfully compiled display showcased works by the participants of reSonAnce’S residencies and the most recent trends in continental sound art. Skaņu mežs hosted reSonAnce’S previous touring group exhibition at tabakas fabrika in 2011. The thematic aspirations, so to speak, of SKAN II are to draw attention, both directly and indirectly, to riga’s old wooden architecture in the āgenskalns neighbourhood. the neighbourhood is undeniably home to a significant cultural and historical heritage that is not celebrated enough on an everyday basis; however, sound art as a highlight for the place is as fitting as a chess tournament or a summer camp in pārdaugava. except, of course, for the fact that the target audience for a sound art exhibition as a cultural event are people holding intellectual and social potential. hopefully, this idea of urban planning from the cultural policy perspective will prove successful and āgenskalns will quite soon be in equally high demand as miera iela, also resulting in a warming up of the economy due to lucrative rent prices. | |
 Evelīna Deičmane. The Story of Wolfschmidt Manor. Installation. 2014 Photo: Ansis Starks Publicity photo Courtesy of the artist | |
| Ergo, what is sound art? the definition is not quite clear. Sound art can be regarded as a work in space rather than in time, as in the case of music. A work without a manifest narrative pattern and an explicit beginning and end, namely, a work that has been exhibited, not performed. Sound art works have sometimes been created for a specific place through interacting with, interpreting or modifying that specific space and thus, metaphorically speaking, they can be called sound sculptures. For the most part, sound art works do not consist of sound alone; their visual settings are either inevitable or serve as an ambient means of co-expression. And it is here that a problem arises, for how to make a distinction between sound art and art with sound? is any audiovisual, conceptual, contemporary piece of media art a potential work of sound art depending on the manner of its presentation and perception? is it enough that sound art is an interdisciplinary practice in which the sound has a leading role and is its central “subject” or theme? SKAN II offers a broad enough aesthetic spectrum for visitors to find their own answers to those questions on the basis of either rational or intuitive considerations. I have defined four categories to group and examine works from the first and second stage of the exhibition: sound works, sound works with a visual component, visual works with sound, and works customised to a specific place. Sound works include Silbadores, a joint creation by Austrian heimo lattner and german artist judith laub devoted to el Silbo, a whistled “language” once used by the original inhabitants of the canary islands to communicate over large distances that is now on the verge of extinction. the work, which, in a word, is a phantom, was played from the balcony of the botanical garden’s palm house and featured a text whistled in the latvian language. whistling reminiscent of the call of a mythical bird was sounded every fifteen minutes across the garden. At the launching of the second part of the exhibition, the art of communication by whistling was demonstrated in a live performance by el Silbo master kiko correa. The second audio-piece was an untitled work by the finnish duo tommi grönlund and petteri nisunen in the botanical garden’s wine cellar. the duo also participated in the first SKAN exhibition and are known for their impressive works intertwining art, design and architecture. this time, however, they had been inspired by the special atmosphere and specific acoustics of the cellar’s spherical space. the brickwork dome of the ceiling reflects sound in such a manner that it is not possible to tell from where it is coming. An acoustic system of several channels played various abstract sounds, disorienting visitors’ perception until their eyes became fully accustomed to the absolute darkness. After that their work could be enjoyed as a peaceful mystical atmosphere. but the part of the installation causing the most disorientation were the steps leading downstairs to the cellar, which indeed provided all possibilities for breaking one’s neck. One of the works for which it was only logical to have a visual frame, although it could be appreciated all by itself, was dutch artist peter bogers’ Untamed Choir exhibited in wolfschmidt manor, a wooden building in the botanical garden. the original installation was designed for 40 loudspeakers hanging from a ceiling. All of the loudspeakers were not displayed in riga because the room was too small (in fact, this was the smallest room ever to showcase the work); this, however, did not in general detract from the work. Untamed Choir consists of loudspeakers, both arranged in a circle and placed at random. the soundscape changes from choral chanting into a menacing scream or an improvisation in the sound poetry style. the work features continual, gradual changes in sound accompanied by a visual component consisting of two projected image sequences on the wall. they remind one of the reflection of light on window panes, while the little white figures with a minus sign “running” against a black background and black figures with a plus sign against a white background are meaningless, because they do not correspond to the micro-tonal gradations of sound. the projected images seem to stand for the positive and negative, for instance, screaming has been conceived as a negative for singing. At times, the sounds move around the entire space of the room and at times only within the ring of speakers, literally galopping in a circle. the installation is a real enjoyment of multi-channel sound with the effect of an artificial choir. the work both exposes the listener to the full scope and at the same time allows him or her to focus on each specific loudspeaker, presenting a delicate portrayal of each individual voice. for this reason, Untamed Choir should be displayed in a room with minimum reverberation for the visitor to hear the most subtle nuances as clearly as possible. | |
 Pascal Broccolichi. Table d’harmonie. Installation. 2013 Photo: Ansis Starks Publicity photo Courtesy of the artist | |
| Another piece in which visuality is like the embodiment of the sound is Photophon #1, a delicate work by belgian artist Aernoudt jacobs reminiscent of a lab and scientific settings and displayed in the wine cellar during the first part of the exhibition. it reflects the artist’s recent impressions about 19th-century scientific equipment. Actually, it is a re-interpretation of the famous inventor Alexander bell’s discovery based on the photo-acoustic effect, that is, a strong source of light can be transmuted into a sound wave due to absorbtion, temperature fluctuations and changes in air pressure. in Photophon #1, sound tones are created by laser beams projected through rotating disks that break up the beam into small fragments. After those, a sphere-shaped resonator amplifies the sound, transmitting it further to the neat hand-made glass trumpets. the result is a fine, “narrow” sound, best heard when one puts one’s ear close to the installation. the musical key of the installation changes over time, and thus the work involves a latent musicality. the ambience of the cellar presented a contrasting setting to the fragility of the work, but at the same time the bright neon colours of Photophon #1 stood out in the darkness, giving an impression of an alien device kept secret by the government. the work was especially appealing due to the fact that the sound was fully acoustic and no electric amplifiers were used. A 2012 work by a home team, RIXC (raitis Šmits and rasa Šmite), about generating electric power from bacteria, which has been exhibited a number of times, including abroad at the prestigious Austrian centre of electronic art Ars Electronica, was finally given its most appropriate form and set up in the botanical garden’s pond. the work is based on a green energy experiment of testing the means of producing electric power with the help of bacteria. the bacteria used dwell in dirty waters such as ponds, lakes, sewage or mud. the installation captures the fluctuations of the power generation process in the “bacteria batteries” in the water, and those fluctuations are in turn used as a “controller” for the sound chosen at random by voldemārs johansons, namely, the hiss of white noise. heaven forbid, do not think that those are bacteria who are making the sound! in the work, nothing is being converted into a sound or sonified or made audible. instead, the bacteria do something like deejay the sound, if one may say so. the work also does not accentuate or play upon anything in the botanical garden, except for the coincidence that the venue has a pond and the work is suitable for being displayed in a pond. it is nice, however, that white loudspeakers have been placed around the pond and the sounds they emit try the patience of the workers building a footbridge nearby. Beside the pond on a tree one sees white cords and elastic ribbons arranged in the patterns of veins on tree leaves. this is a work by the sound art veteran max eastley called Wind Installation for Riga. rigans have already had access to one of his works during the 2005 Sound forest (Skaņu mežs) festival in the reformed church building. eastley is a master of kinetic sound sculptures, and nature is a point of reference for him. eastley’s works are often a “live performance” of field recordings material. wind has been assigned an especially important role. the artist is fascinated by the fact that wind, although felt like a sound vibration, is perceived visually – in patterns on a water surface, the movements of trees and so on. wind also generates sounds indirectly, although it does not sound by itself. the elastic ribbons in Wind Installation for Riga also contained wood fibres, which vibrated in the wind and produced delicate sounds. the work was attractive due to its simplicity, lightness and random character. the installation has also been displayed in the botanical gardens of other cities. Turning to works that in principle are visual works with sound (added on to them), it is evelīna deičmane who should be mentioned first. her manner of creating art honed at the visual communication department of the Art Academy of latvia blossoms in full in the botanical garden. her installation The Story of Wolfschmidt Manor imitates a burnt down and crumbling building, the ruins of which or charred boards have been displayed in an aesthetically very appealing manner. the boards are intertwined with metal structures emitting hollow groans as a background for various sounds and a woman’s voice narrating the history of the botanical garden grounds in a slightly old-fashioned poetic prose style. the text can also be read in the description of the work displayed by a tree right next to it. one gets the impression that deičmane has been asked to produce an installation for this particular exhibition and she has just come up with something. The artist who brought to riga a work that looks like a flawless piece of merchandise is frenchman pascal broccolichi. Table d’harmonie, which was displayed in the kalnciems district gallery, a venue that could not complain about a lack of attention in the context of pārdaugava’s wooden architecture heritage, features a number of perfectly formed craters arranged on the ground, precise and regular, sculpted from black corundum dust, a material used for producing sandpaper. the object is undeniably a work of art. the installation looks like desert dunes from an alien planet or the velvety surface of tiramisu. black loudspeakers have been placed in some of the craters’ cones, creating an impression of Anish kapoor’s works having been grafted upon those of rolf julius. the speakers play hydrophone recordings from the daugava river and the gulf of riga, which is the only connection of the work to riga; however, matching the sound to the visual has not been the intent here. undeniably, the work is about perfection; it is produced anew each time from a definite amount of sand. besides, the artist enjoys the repeated creation of the installation. its essential feature is its three-dimensionality. At the riga exhibition, however, visitors were not able to walk around the work; it was squeezed into a rectangular room and could only be viewed from one end. Berliner Stefan roigk is another artist whose works have a distinctly visual character. he creates compositions by combining sculpture, installation, stage design and sound collages. roigk’s Bursting Conviction display at wolfschmidt manor looked outstanding, like an explosion put on pause mode in which fragments were frozen in the air. the work is made in papier-mache technique (stucco-like paper soaked in glue), applying the mass to various objects of plastic packaging waste collected over two years. thus, roigk has produced forms (moulding those shapes reminds him of modifying the sound) that are suspended from fishing lines in a certain pattern. Small loudspeakers are part of all that structure and emit delicate sounds “corresponding” to the materials and partly obtained from the same raw plastic material. Bursting Conviction brings to mind a three-dimensional scenario; to move within it is like walking amidst a soundtrack layout in an audio processing software programme with the possibility of seeing a multitude of relations between the elements depending on the perspective. incidently, the sounds of roigk’s installations have been issued as music recordings by respectable experimental music publishers such as Senufo Editions run by the italian giuseppe ielasi and the cutting-edge Tochnit Aleph led by roigk’s fellow countryman daniel löwenbrück, who has also collaborated with the SKAN II participant leif elggren from Sweden. We have now come to sound art works that have been created for, dedicated or customised to a specific venue. one such work has been created by the two legendary Swedish artists carl michael von hausswolff and leif elggren, who have both been represented several times at Skaņu mežs activities and also at the first SKAN exhibition. this time, hausswolff and elggren have turned their attention to the so-called botanical garden observatory, or, the satellite laser rang- ing observation station run by the university of latvia Astronomy institute and located in a remote part of the garden. the observatory is a facility of national strategic importance, providing, for instance, accurate synchronised time. nothing, however, testifies to the im- portance of the building, and that is the beauty of it. the duo’s work DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN featured the observatory’s under- ground levels, each painted in different colours and producing a dif- ferent sound that evoked outer-space-related associations, thus presenting the building as if it were a station for receiving signals from outer space and making the visitor feel emanations from other worlds. in their characteristic humorous manner, hausswolff and elggren played up the place as if it were something occult. pagan runic signs of industrial design produced from bars of rusty metal were attached to the walls on each level. Meanwhile, all three phases of SKAN II will feature Riga Tracks, a so-called audio-guide by the brussels-based german artist david helbich – a witty sound installation to engage a visitor for the whole day. the work is best suited for visitors who are endowed with patience and enthusiasm alike, people who sincerely enjoy looking foolish (read: creatively different) and becoming engaged from A to z in somewhat simple-hearted activities like, for instance, hardijs lediņš’ binocular dancing. Riga Tracks includes a variety of bodily movements, humming and weird behaviour – and all that in a for- eign public space. The beauty of Riga Tracks lies in its largely imaginary content containing much exciting information and focusing on sound and hearing in a most charming manner. the culturally referential game- type work is intended for open-type headphones (unlike dj head phones, which provide perfect quality sound while blocking outside noise) so that the recording in the headphones mingles with sur- rounding sounds. the headphones should be worn loosely or car- ried in one’s hand as they sound or even put down on the ground in front of oneself. Riga Tracks is interspersed with auditory experi- ments that each of us definitely made in our childhood, for example, concentrating on changes in the sound while slowly bringing our hands closer to our ears or listening to the surrounding sounds with our ears covered. the visitor is also invited to imagine that his blocked ears suddenly “un-pop”. All these are elements that can nev- er become intersubjective; in other words, nobody will ever hear them like we hear and feel them ourselves. The artist invites visitors to focus their listening to one or the other side, behind or overhead. this resembles the auricular phenomenon of being able to focus one’s ear on a specific sound as if separating it from other sounds, which remain in the background. A microphone, for its part, can never do that; a recording, unlike the “zooming in” of a person’s hearing, is uniform without a desired ac- cent. A large part of the work is based on an old piece of wisdom that says many things can be enjoyed as art through the keeping of an aesthetic distance, namely, imagining (in this case) that a self-evi- dent everyday reality is something staged. during Riga Tracks everything becomes a drama and visitors become actors; their par- ticipation becomes performative, others not even being aware of it. Still, the work does not highlight so much the wooden architecture of pārdaugava as it does Soviet-era buildings. there lingers a desire that the artist have not only visited that one restricted area but also interpreted many other locations in riga. In the third part of the exhibition special attention should be devoted to artists such as the legendary American composer and installation artist michael j. Schumacher, voldemārs johansons and drummer eli keszler, who already visited riga in 2013 for the Skaņu mežs event at the Anglican church during white night (baltā nakts). SKAN II is an invigorating event in an urban environment. complementary and enriching aesthetic facets have been imparted to specific venues. the botanical garden has been turned into a fantas- tic place for a stroll, a place that is worth returning to many years after taking a school study trip there. Synergy with the old wooden buildings has come true, and the exhibition undeniably is a special adventure to enthuse about for quite some time. besides, the pres- ence of the exhibition works makes one unerringly realise and pas- sionately yearn for regularly experiencing such art. SKAN II is a cultural event that brings riga closer to europe. At least in a moral sense. At least on an individual basis. Translator into English: Sarmīte Lietuviete | |
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