SOUND AND VISUAL ARTS
28.09–22.10.2023
KorSonoR is an exhibition-festival dedicated to sound and visual arts, presented in Geneva from September 28 to October 22, 2023. The exhibition is divided into two venues, Le Commun and Flux Laboratory, and two installations can be discovered in the public space. A rich program of performances and other projects unfolds in and with various cultural venues: Cave 12, Comédie de Genève, Grand Théâtre, les 6 toits, Musée d’art et d’histoire. A symposium is organized in the conference room of the Bâtiment d’art contemporain.
KorSonoR is held every two years, with a second edition scheduled for October 2025.
Tarek Atoui
Tarek Atoui, performance, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Salle Duval, Genève, as part of KorSonoR, 19 October 2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Tarek Atoui, performance, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Salle Duval, Genève, as part of KorSonoR, 19 October 2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Tarek Atoui, performance, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Salle Duval, Genève, as part of KorSonoR, 19 October 2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Performance
19.10.2023
7pm
Performance-concert, 1h
Musée d’art et d’histoire
Salle Duval
Rue Charles-Galland 2
1206 Genève
free admission
(admission MAH pay what you want)
Presentation
Tarek Atoui’s work (LB, 1980, based in Paris) stems from performance and explores how sound can be perceived by sensory organs other than the ear, how it acts as a catalyst for human interaction and how it is linked to social, historical and spatial parameters. The starting point for his work is usually in-depth anthropological, ethnological, musicological or technical research, leading to the creation of instruments, listening rooms, performances and workshops.
Since 2008, in the course of his travels and projects, Atoui has been building up an archive of instrumental sounds from anthropology museums and classical Arab music, which coexist with sounds captured in port cities and those of new, experimental instruments. For his performance in the Salle Duval of the Musée d’art et d’histoire, he will be using materials from this archive to compose an original sound fresco.
Biographical notes
Solo exhibitions and festivals: Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2023); Fondation Serralves Porto; Mudam, Luxembourg; The Flag Art Foundation New York; The Contemporary, Austin (2022); Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection, Paris (2021); Sharjah Art Foundation; Fridericianum, Cassel (2020); Marfa Sounding; NTU Center for Contemporary Art, Singapore (2018); Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels; Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou (2017); Tate Modern, London (2016); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2015). Biennials: Gwangju Biennale (2023); Istanbul Biennale (2022); Struer Tracks Sound Art Biennial (2021); 22nd Sydney Biennale (2020); 58th Venice Art Biennale (2019); Marrakech Biennale (2016); 8th Berlin Biennale (2014); 9th Mercosul Biennale, Porto Alegre; Ruhrtriennale, Essen; 11th Sharjah Biennale (2013); documenta 13, Cassel, (2012).
Atoui was co-artistic director of STEIM Studios, Amsterdam (2007) and Bergen Assembly (2016). He is the winner of the Suzanne Deal Booth/FLAG Art Foundation Prize, New York (2020). He is represented by Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris.
Ban Lei
Ban Lei, Lín, instrument-sculpture and 153 returning birds, installation, Le Commun. Photo © Julien Gremaud / Arta Sperto Ban Lei, 153 returning birds, activation during the opening, Le Commun, 28.09.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Ban Lei, 153 returning birds, activation during the opening, Le Commun, 28.09.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Work on display
153 returning birds, 2023,
installation adapted specifically for the venue, to be activated by the public
live activation of the installation by the artist during the opening and on 29.10, 30.09, 01.10 at 3.30pm
Wood (beech, mahogany, maple, ash, tulipwood, etc.), PU leather and PPM rope
free admission
Presentation
After training as a classical musician and a career in new technologies, Ban Lei (CN, 1990, based in Geneva) has moved away from pre-existing musical rules, equipment for expected use and electronic sound effects in order to obtain an “objective” or “neutral” creative context. He makes his own musical instruments, mainly out of wood—inspired by nature (trees, plants, wind, rhythm)— which he plays alone or in groups. For him, the instrument is part of the musician’s body. This practice has enabled him to master every aspect of the work process: inspiration, concept, technique, manufacture, adjustment, performance and public sharing.
The idea for 153 Returning Birds came to Ban Lei during the preparation of his project for the Schlossmediale Festival at Werdenberg Castle (Canton of St. Gallen), where he was Artist in Focus in May 2023. During his visits to the castle, he was struck by the sound of birds and wind outside. Considering the castle’s 800-year history, he imagined that birds and wind transcend time and space. The three sizes of the birds/sculptures/instruments that he created—51 units per size—represent three generations, i.e. grandparents, parents and children, as a metaphor for infinite time. The 153 Returning Birds installation has been specially adapted for the 2nd floor of Le Commun, under the glass roof. Visitors can play the “birds”, composing a random assemblage of sounds that unfold a form of intuitive energy. When the “bird sculptures” are activated in the exhibition hall, the surrounding birds hear their sounds and carry them away.
Biographical notes
After studying music at Shanghai University, Ban Lei played in bands and worked in the Interactive Media Art Programme at New York University in Shanghai. In 2017, he exhibited at the Modern Art Museum in Shanghai. In 2018, he was awarded a grant by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council for a residency at the Embassy of Foreign Artists in Geneva. In 2020, he began making wooden sculptures and returned to Geneva to study at HEAD – Genève, Geneva University of Art and Design, where he obtained a master’s degree in 2022. In 2023, his work was presented at the Mos Espa Festival in Geneva and at the Schlossmediale Festival in Werdenberg (St. Gallen), where he was Artist in Focus.
Rudy Decelière
Rudy Decelière, Shallow Water, sound installation, Le Commun. Photo © Julien Gremaud Rudy Decelière, Shallow Water, sound installation, Le Commun. Photo © Julien Gremaud Rudy Decelière, Shallow Water, sound installation, Le Commun. Photo © Julien Gremaud
Work on display
Shallow Water, 2023
sound installation
creation
Wood tray ø 200cm, vegetal element, pins, magnet, copper wire, electronics + benches
Coproduction Arta Sperto/KorSonoR, Geneva, and Klang Moor Schopfe, Geis
free admission
Presentation
Rudy Decelière (CH/FR, 1979, based in Geneva) is interested in imperceptible sound phenomena, which he showcases in visual and sound installations. He makes electric and electromagnetic fields audible and explores the thresholds of what is perceptible. His work draws on nature and the intensity of the silence of the mountains, in all its invisibility, mystique, sublimity, disquiet and magic.
Shallow Water is made up of hundreds of dried beech leaves arranged in an orthonormal pattern on a circular wooden surface (~25 mm thick by 2 m in diameter). Each leaf is placed on a pin that raises it slightly. A miniature electromagnetic system, comprising a magnet and a small coil of copper wire, is integrated into each element. The work explores individual micro-impulses. Each entity produces a very short impulse, of its own random duration and intensity. This action is akin to a drop of water falling on the sheet, producing a percussive sound that can be heard in a variety of ways. The totality of the individual sound points generates an overall sound, giving the installation a “microsonic” character. Shallow Water invites visitors to feel the distance and proximity and the richness and amplitude of the space generated, and to experience listening to virtual silence. In this highly sensitive new work, Decelière uses one element—the dried beech leaf—as a possible metaphor for the organisation of life in different species, including the human species.
Biographical notes
Solo exhibitions and projects: Ferme Asile, Sion (2020); Kunstmuseum, Olten; EPFL, Learning Center, Lausanne; Festival Electron – CERN (with Hänni, Kieffer, Blas), Geneva (2016); Musée Angladon, Avignon (2015); Halle Nord, Geneva; Église St-François, Lausanne (2014); Musée Jenisch, Vevey (2013); Kunstraum Kreuzlingen; Maison Tavel – Festival de la Bâtie, Geneva; Abbatiale de Bellelay (2012). Group exhibitions and festivals: Klang Moor Schopfe, Geis (2023); Musée d’art et d’histoire, Neuchatel (2022); MBAL, Le Locle (2021); Museum of Art, Pully (2019); Phonetics, Alger (2018); Tsonami Sound Art Festival, Valparaiso; 4th Ural Industrial Biennial, Ekaterinburg; Musée de la Main, Lausanne; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille (2017); Haus Gropius, Bauhaus Dessau; L’audible festival, Paris (2016); Soundplay Festival, Gdansk; Bex & Arts, Bex (2014). Permanent works – Kunst am Bau: Pavillon ADC, Geneva (2022); SIK-ISEA, UNIL, Lausanne (2019). Decelière has also developed collaborations with choreographers (Aurélien Dougé, Adaline Anobile) and musicians (Vincent Hänni).
Emilie Ding
+
Alizée Lenox
Emilie Ding + Alizée Lenox, The Monument Is Listening, performance/concert echoing/mirroring Emilie Ding’s installation on the façade of the Mirabaud building, Geneva, 21.10.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Emilie Ding + Alizée Lenox, The Monument Is Listening, performance/concert echoing/mirroring Emilie Ding’s installation on the façade of the Mirabaud building, Geneva, 21.10.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Emilie Ding + Alizée Lenox, The Monument Is Listening, performance/concert echoing/mirroring Emilie Ding’s installation on the façade of the Mirabaud building, Geneva, 21.10.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Performance
20.10.2023
8pm
The Monument Is Listening
performance/concert
echoing/mirroring Emilie Ding’s installation How High You Can Count – A Temporary Monument on the façade of the Mirabaud, building 40′
creation
Production Arta Sperto / KorSonoR, Geneva
Public Space
Plaine de Plainpalais at du 29 Bd Georges-Favon
1204 Geneva
free access
Presentation
Emilie Ding (CH, 1981, based in Berlin) draws inspiration from the built environment and the structural elements of buildings to create works on paper and sculptures with a minimalist language and great graphic and physical force. Her monumental work How High You Can Count (2017) is made up of luminescent tubes installed on the façade of the Mirabaud bank in Geneva. Six compositions of coloured segments reveal and amplify the grid structure of the façade. Pared down and enigmatic, they are the result of a rigorous protocol that translates the dates of birth and death of the American artist and composer Pauline Oliveros (30.05.1932–24.11.2016) into a code format, i.e. DD/MM/YYYY. A theorist and practitioner of Deep Listening, a principle based on the idea of listening in as many ways as possible to everything that can possibly be heard all of the time, Oliveros has developed a minimal sound language, born of attention devoted to the spatial and acoustic characteristics of places, which she reveals through the medium of sound. How High You Can Count pays tribute to the art of Oliveros, which is open to musical, philosophical and spiritual dimensions.
For KorSonoR, Ding has been invited to imagine a performance in front of the building’s façade, with How High You Can Count as its backdrop, which will enhance the tribute with a sound project in the spirit of the work of Oliveros. She has invited sound artist Alizée Lenox (FR/DE, 1989, based in Berlin), who is strongly influenced by New York’s no wave scene and the minimalist avant-garde. Her compositions make extensive use of repetition, layers of sound and dissonance as a means of creating poetic explorations on the guitar. She develops her own techniques by combining objects (drills, plumbing pipes, paintbrushes) and materials (glass, ceramics, vegetation) with her guitar. Her practice is essentially performative. She regularly collaborates with visual artists.
Notices biographiques
Emilie Ding, solo exhibitions: art3, Valencia (2016); MAMCO, Geneva; Live in your Head (with Stephen O’Malley), Geneva (2015); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014). Group exhibitions: Parcours heART@geneva, Geneva (2022); Centre Pompidou Kanal, Brussels; Môtiers – Art en plein air (with Olga Kokcharova) (2020); By repetition…, Le Commun, Geneva (2019); Fondation CAB, Brussels (2018); FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon; Istituto Svizzero, Rome; Centre d’art L’Onde, Vélizy-Villacoublay (2017); Musée Jenisch, Vevey; Musée de Pully; Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse; Centre d’art contemporain Abbaye St-André, Meymac (2016); Centre d’art Pasquart, Bienne; Musée Rath, Geneva (2015). She is represented by Galerie Xippas, Paris, Geneva and Punta del Este. She is currently working on a short film based on the modernist architectural environment of the Ecole Supérieure d’Art d’Annecy.
Alizée Lenox, projects and collaborations: Room for Doubts, invited by Julie Monot, Arsenic, Lausanne (2023); Whispers for T, invited by Tristan Amor Rabit, Visarte, Zurich; Music for Dick, invited by Adrien Missika, Berlin Art Week – BAW Garten, Berlin; Project Space Festival, Plus DEDE, Berlin; Colorama Club House, Berlin; Theodora ou le progrès – Alpina Huus, Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (2022) + Swiss Performance Art Award, St-Gall + Arsenic, Lausanne (2021); Requiem for Tegel, invited by Ellinor Asgaard, HVW8, Berlin (2020); Kunstverein Braunschweig; Horse & Pony, Berlin (2019); Istituto Svizzero, Rome (2018); Forum Stadtpark, Graz (2017); FRAC PACA, Marseille (2016).
Agnès Geoffray
Agnès Geoffray, Fléau, performance with Mateo Castelblanco, Jérémie Lamourez, Mordjane Mira, Sylvia Rosat, Bobby Scala, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva, 15.10.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Agnès Geoffray, Fléau, performance with Mateo Castelblanco, Jérémie Lamourez, Mordjane Mira, Sylvia Rosat, Bobby Scala, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva, 15.10.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Agnès Geoffray, Fléau, performance with Mateo Castelblanco, Jérémie Lamourez, Mordjane Mira, Sylvia Rosat, Bobby Scala, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Geneva, 15.10.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Performance
15.10.2023
4pm
4.45pm
5.15pm
Fléau, 2022,
performance, 15′
Concept and direction Agnès Geoffray/performers Mateo Castelblanco, Jérémie Lamourez, Mordjane Mira, Sylvia Rosat, Bobby Scala (Compagnie Cirque à mille temps)
Fléau benefited from the partnership of the Théâtre de Vanves and the support of the Briquetterie CDCN du Val de Marne, DRAC Ile-de-France, MAC/VAL Vitry-sur-Seine, Galerie Maubert, Sabine Marais-Veyrat.
Musée d’art et d’histoire
Cour
Rue Charles-Galland 2
1206 Geneva
free admission
(admission MAH pay what you want)
Presentation
“As an iconographer, I probe, elaborate and reactivate images. Through staging, re-appropriation and photographic or textual associations, I reveal a world of tensions—latent and mysterious. Through photography and text (installation, object, performance), my work questions the legacy of archetypal gestures and postures that draw their source from a hetero- geneous repertoire: mythology, fairy tales, news stories, historical facts and press photography. My work focuses on the poetic dimension of images and texts, close to a form of documentary lyricism.” AG
Fléau is a continuation of Agnès Geoffray’s (FR, 1973, based in Paris) artistic research, who explores notions such as control, the state of being under influence, domination and the resistance of the body. Fléau reactivates the ritual and cultural dimensions of ancestral practices, the body and its extension, the whip. The whip is borrowed from an imaginary world or history of violence and domination, assimilated in particular to training, punishment and torture. The word “fléau” comes from the Latin flagellum which means “to beat”. To beat time. Fléau takes inspiration from the traditions of the Geisslenchlöpfer, the Swiss whippers from the Canton of Schwyz or the district of Lenzburg, who draw on the pagan customs of trainers and carriage drivers. This ancient cultural tradition dates back to the 16th century and used to be performed at night in public places to chase away winter, demons and evil spirits with the deafening sound of whips.
These historical dimensions led us to present Fléau at the Musée d’art et d’histoire, Switzerland’s largest encyclopaedic museum. The museum’s courtyard is also an architectural gem that particularly enhances the specific sonic features of the performance.
Biographical notes
Presentation of Fléau: FRAC Nouvelle Acquitaine MECA, Bordeaux; Festival Playground, Stuk, Leuven; Nuit Blanche, Paris; Festival Artdanthé, Théâtre de Vanves (2023); MAC/VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine (2022). Solo exhibitions: FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand (2020); Les Brasseurs, Liège (2019); Centre photographique Ile-de-France, Pontault-Combault (2017); La Maison rouge, Le Vestibule, Paris (2012). Group exhibitions: FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand (2023); Dance First Think Later, Arta Sperto at Le Commun, Geneva; Kunstmuseum – Kunsthalle Appenzell; Biennale de la photographie, Mulhouse; Centre d’art Les Tanneries, Amilly; Musée d’art et d’archéologie, Aurillac (2022); FRAC Franche Comté, Besançon; Centre de la gravure et de l’image imprimée, La Louvière; Centre d’art de L’Onde, Vélizy-Villacoublay (2021); Collection Lambert, Avignon (2020); MNAM Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); Centre photographique, Rouen (2018); Rencontres de la photographie, Arles; Centre d’art contemporain, Meymac; FRAC PACA, Marseille; Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers (2017); Jeu de Paume, Paris; Centre Pompidou, Metz (2016); MAC/VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine; Kunsthalle, Mainz; Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne; Kunsthaus, Zurich (2015). She is represented by Galerie Maubert, Paris.
Kim Gordon
Kim Gordon, 12341 Brandford St, Sun Valley, 2022, projected video, Le Commun. Photo © Julien Gremaud / Arta Sperto Kim Gordon, 12341 Brandford St, Sun Valley, 2022, projected video, Le Commun. Photo © Julien Gremaud / Arta Sperto Kim Gordon, 12341 Brandford St, Sun Valley, 2022, video still, 14’13’’, © Kim Gordon
Work on display
12341 Brandford St, Sun Valley, 2022, 14’13’’, sound video projected in large format
Film by Kim Gordon / design office, direction Manuella Dalle and Kim Gordon / Production Jean Martin / cinematography Vincent Venturella / editing Manuela Dalle/colour Josh Almario /
sound mixing Vice Cooler
free admission
Presentation
Kim Gordon (US, 1953, based in Los Angeles) works in a number of disciplines and cultural fields: art, design, writing, fashion (XGirl), music (founding member, bassist, guitarist and singer of Sonic Youth [1981–2011], Free Kitten, Body/Head) and film/video (as an actress and director). She performs guitar with choreographer and dancer Dimitri Chamblas. Her works include the ongoing series Noise Painting, depicting the names of experimental and noise bands; a series of paintings depicting the names of galleries and gallerists; works from the untitled series From The Boyfriend—Rorschach-like images painted on used denim skirts; Twitter Paintings taken from the Twitter feeds of GIRLS producer Jenni Konner, critic Jerry Saltz and artist Richard Prince, among others; and her Wreath Paintings, which use decorative folk forms as stencils to produce dizzyingly colourful abstractions. One of the guiding principles of her work is the dismantling of the hierarchical sanctification of the object.
In the video 12341 Brandford St, Sun Valley, she plays electric guitar in contact with bodywork piled up in a car graveyard, shifting her electric experiments from the concert stage to the twilight setting of a suffocating world.
“As if she were in the future, she moves among the car wrecks piled one on top of the other, timidly at first. She’s an outsider, an interloper, an alien. She’s drawn to the cars and starts rubbing her guitar against the dead machines, creating sounds as she goes. It’s a kind of recycling of useless metal. It’s the flip side of consumer culture. Car adverts often resemble idyllic landscapes, with the car speeding through a magnificent desert, a winding wooded road or the glittering streets of an urban night, in an existential vision of freedom and joy. The junkyard is a hidden or forgotten landscape that conveys silent stories of violence and dreams.” KG
Biographical notes
Gordon studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, where she made lasting friendships, notably with Mike Kelley (a student at the time) and Dan Graham (a teacher). She presented the first exhibition of her Design Office art project at White Columns in New York in 1981.
Exhibitions: Museum Im Bellpark, Kriens (2022); Busan Biennale (2020); Lo-Fi Glamour, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; She Bites Her Tender Mind, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2019); Manifesta 11, Zurich (2016); All Instruments Agree: an exhibition or a concert, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Noise Name Paintings and Sculptures of Rock Bands That Are Broken Up, Benaki Museum – Deste Foundation, Athens (2015); Design Office/Kim Gordon, White Columns, New York (2013); Sonic Youth ETC: Sensational Fix, Museion, Bolzano; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Malmö Konsthall; Centre de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid (2009); Music is a Better Noise, MoMA/PS1, New York (2006). She is represented by 303 Gallery, New York.
Olga Kokcharova
Olga Kokcharova, sound recroding at the Comédie de Genève, June 2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Olga Kokcharova, Retours Loge, sound walk, Comédie de Genève, 01.10.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Olga Kokcharova, Retours Loge, sound walk, Comédie de Genève, 01.10.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Work on display
01.10.2023
11am-6pm
04 – 07.10.2023
2pm-7pm
08.10.2023
2pm-6pm
Retours Loge, 2023
“Sound Portrait of the Comédie”, sound installation
creation
Production Arta Sperto/KorSonoR, production support Comédie de Genève. This project receives production support from FCAC – Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain DCS Genève.
Comédie de Genève
Esplanade Alice-Bailly 1
1207 Geneva
free admission
Sound Walks
01.10.2023
11am, 2pm and 4pm
Retours Loge, 2023
sound walks in and around the Comédie, 45′
creation
Production Arta Sperto/KorSonoR, production support Comédie de Genève. This project receives production support from FCAC – Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain DCS Geneva.
Comédie de Genève
Esplanade Alice-Bailly 1
1207 Geneva
Presentation
Composer, sound artist, musician and landscape architect Olga Kokcharova (RU/CH, based in Geneva= focuses on all that is audible and explores sound as a tool to reinvent the way we map reality. She works with analogue modular synthesisers, prepared instruments and field recordings. She uses these sources to create compositions, radio pieces, multichannel electroacoustic improvisations, soundtracks, soundwalks and sound installations in public spaces. She takes part in multidisciplinary laboratories with anthropologists, architects, landscape architects, artists, sociologists and urban planners, with the aim of promoting a collective reflection on the question of sound.
Invited by Arta Sperto to design the “sound portrait” of a cultural institution in Geneva, Kokcharova chose Comédie de Genève. She is interested in the building itself—in its architecture as an instrument and resonant body. Among her observations, she was struck by the diversity of acoustic properties, from the performance halls where sound propagation is tailored to the extreme demands of theatre, to the corridors and halls where waves are chaotically reverberated by concrete, metal and glass surfaces. For the discerning ear, the experience of moving from one space to another is a musical composition in itself. For a fortnight, she was able to collect sounds throughout the building. She sees sound recording as a key moment in which the beginnings of the compositional work already lie. She uses sensors and microphones as instruments of improvisation and spontaneous composition based on real-time sound recording. Her sound creation will be multi-broadcast in one of the dressing rooms of the Comédie, where the actors usually hear what is happening on stage through monitors. A performance version of the work will be presented in the form of soundwalks through and around the building.
Biographical notes
Exhibitions, sound installations, compositions, performances, broadcasts: creation with Ensemble Vide, Gare du Nord, Basel (2023); Solo/Mute/Pan (with Laurent Gudel), Centre d’art Pasquart, Bienne; Sonic Matter Festival, Zurich; Sonic Topologies, Zurich; Festival Archipel, Geneva (2022); Môtiers – Art en plein air (with Emilie Ding); Pavillon ADC, Geneva (2021); By repetition… , Le Commun, Geneva; CAUE, Annecy; Belvédère sonore, Geneva; Gamut Festival, Zurich (2020); Druker Design Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge; Musée Tinguely, Basel; Festival Akouphène, Geneva; CAN, Neuchâtel; Tribune internationale des compositeurs, Bariloche (2019); Cose Cosmiche, Milan (2018); Parc Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ermenonville; Klang Moor Schopfe, Geis (2017). She has received numerous awards, including the Prix de la Fédération Suisse des Architectes Paysagistes (2020).
Christina Kubisch
Christina Kubisch, Cloud, Le Commun. Photo © Julien Gremaud / Arta Sperto Christina Kubisch, Electrical Walk Geneva, electromagnetic sound walk in public spaces. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Christina Kubisch, Electrical Walk Geneva, electromagnetic sound walk in public spaces. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Work on display
Cloud, 2011
sound installation
Metal structure, electric cables, multitrack players, multichannel composition, electromagnetic induction headsets
free admission
Sound walk
29.09 – 22.10.2023
Tues – Sun 11am-6pm
Electrical Walk Geneva, 2023
sound walk with headsets, electromagnetic investigation in the city, around 1h
creation
Electrical Walk, 2004 – work in progress / Electrical Walk Geneva, N° 92, production Arta Sperto / KorSonoR, Geneva
Public space, departure from Le Commun
free admission
Presentation
At the end of the 1970s, after a period of concerts and audiovisual performances, Christina Kubisch (DE, 1948, based in Berlin) decided to stop performing on stage. She chose to create spaces where the audience could move individually between different sound sources, listen in their own time and discover unusual musical soundscapes. She explores the many ways in which sound sources can be placed in space, as well as the specific aspects of architecture. Her large-scale installations are usually created especially for a given location.
KorSonoR presents two works by Kubisch: Cloud at Le Commun, and Electrical Walk Geneva, to be experienced in the city from Le Commun.
Kubisch has been working with electromagnetic induction since the early 1980s, developing it from a basic technique into an individual artistic tool for her sound installations. In 2003, she began a series of Electrical Walks, the one produced for Geneva being number 92. Equipped with special headphones that enable listeners to hear the electromagnetic fields that surround them and with a map suggesting a route through the city, visitors experience an auditory adventure that will alter their perception of everyday reality by giving substance to invisible wavelengths and charges.
Cloud (from 2011) is a suspended structure made up of 1,200 metres of black electric cable, which is both a visual object and a sound sculpture. Visitors are given special headphones that allow them to explore the hidden acoustic world of the sound installation via the electromagnetic induction system. The sources are electrical waves produced by digital communi- cation systems, security installations and other dense electrical fields: data processing centres, server rooms, offices, airports, shopping areas, etc. The twelve sound channels are mixed by visitors as they move around and under the cloud, with the sounds blending into each other in ever-changing ways.
Biographical notes
Christina Kubisch belongs to the first generation of sound artists. She has taught audiovisual arts in Berlin, Paris, Saarbrucken and Oxford. Her work has been showcased in Europe, the United States, Asia, Australia and South America. She was awarded the Giga-Hertz 2021 Award for Electronic Music.
Solo exhibitions: Klangraum Krems; Espace multimedia Gantner, Bourogne-Belfort (2023); Museu Serralves, Porto (2022); Musée des beaux-arts, Rennes (2019); Akademie der Künste, Berlin; UNArt Center, Shanghai (2018); Bangkok Art and Culture Center; Irish National War Memorial Gardens, Dublin (2016). Group exhibitions and festivals: Museum Tinguely, Basel (2023); Kunstmuseum, Bonn (2021); Le Mans Sonore – Biennale du son; Oslo Contemporary Music Festival (2019); Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Yekaterinburg; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Cut & Splice Festival, Manchester (2017); VIVI Media Arts Center, Vancouver (2016); Cycle Music and Art Festival, Reykjavik (2015); Soundplay, sound art & field recording festival, Gdansk (2014); HEK, Basel; ZKM, Karlsruhe (2012); Ars Electronica, Linz; Impakt Festival, Utrecht; Micro Clima, Poitiers (2010); documenta 8, Cassel (1987); The Art Biennale, Venice (1982, 1980).
Ari Benjamin Meyers
Ari Benjamin Meyers, Forecast (LX23), performance with Laura Eichten, Heidi Heidelberg, Carsten Hein, Jan Terstegen, Grand Théâtre, Geneva, 29.09.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Ari Benjamin Meyers, Forecast (LX23), performance with Laura Eichten, Heidi Heidelberg, Carsten Hein, Jan Terstegen, Grand Théâtre, Geneva, 29.09.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Ari Benjamin Meyers, Forecast (LX23), performance avec Laura Eichten, Heidi Heidelberg, Carsten Hein, Jan Terstegen, Grand Théâtre, Genève, 29.09.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Performance
29.09.2023
7pm
Forecast (LX23), 2023
concert/performance, 60′
Performance and music Ari Benjamin Meyers / text Ari Benjamin Meyers and Wannes Gyselinck / performer Laura Eichten / electric guitar and conductor Jan Terstegen/electric guitar Heidi Heidelberg / bass guitar Carsten Hein / costumes Lea Søvsø / artistic assistance Anna Lucia Nissen / dramaturgy Hermann Müller
Forecast (LX23) was designed by Ari Benjamin Meyers and co-produced by Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein and Arta Sperto/KorSonoR, Geneva.
Grand Théâtre
Boulevard du Théâtre 11
1204 Genève
Presentation
Ari Benjamin Meyers (US, 1972, based in Berlin) seeks to redefine the performative, social and ephemeral nature of music. His compositions, installations, exhibitions and performances question the relationship between performer and audience, between performance and the real world, blurring and mixing the respective worlds and languages of music and the visual arts. Interested in public and civic contexts, he also imagines community rituals and new types of orchestras.
Forecast (LX23) analyses meteorological phenomena, the notion of predictability and the insatiable human need to predict the future, to believe in progress and to dominate the planet. Designed as a reflection on the climate crisis and the increasingly critical and irrational relationship between humans and nature, his performance traverses the history of forecasting and weather phenomena, starting with the true story of David Buckel, an American lawyer who set himself on fire in New York in 2018 in protest against the fossil fuel industry. Forecast (LX23) is based on an idea developed in another form for the Volksbühne Berlin, but which could not be presented to the public because of the pandemic.
Biographical notes
Ari Benjamin Meyers is a composer and conductor. For several years, his work has been presented mainly in contemporary art contexts: Unlimited Night at Art Basel; Hamburger Kunsthalle; Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Musée d’art et d’histoire Paul Éluard, Saint-Denis; Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn; Theatertreffen, Berlin; Rehearsing Philadelphia, various venues (2022); MAAT, Lisbon; Beaufort Triennale; Urbane Künste Ruhr (2021); Blitz Club, Munich; Neues Museum, Nürnberg (2020); MCA Santa Barbara; Kunstverein, Kassel; OGR, Turin; VAC Foundation, Moscow; Frac Franche-Comté, Besançon; Pinault Collection, Punta della Dogana, Venice (2019); Liverpool Biennale; Public Art Munich; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Sonic Somatic Festival, Florence (2018); Lyon Biennale; Lembachhaus, Munich (2017); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2016). He has collaborated with artists such as Tino Sehgal, Anri Sala and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, musicians such as The Residents, Chicks on Speed and Einstürzende Neubauten, and most recently in the project Paysages Partagés, directed by Caroline Barneaud and Stefan Kaegi, created in 2023 in the wild and produced by Théâtre de Vidy. Meyers is represented by the Esther Schipper gallery, Berlin.
Max Neuhaus
Max Neuhaus, presentation of drawings and documents on projects conceived for Geneva. Photo © Julien Gremaud / Arta Sperto Max Neuhaus, documents on Time Piece, 1984, projet for the “rade” in Geneva, not completed. Photo © Julien Gremaud / Arta Sperto Max Neuhaus, documents in the glass case and, on the wall, Promenade du Pin, 2002, drawing, coll. Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain Genève. Photo © Julien Gremaud / Arta Sperto
Works on display
Time Piece Geneva, 1984
sketches and documents for an unrealised sound project, Max Neuhaus Estate, Zurich
sans titre, 1993
drawing for the sound work in the Promenades exhibition, Parc Lulin, 1985, Max Neuhaus Estate, Zurich
Promenade du Pin, 2002,
drawing for the eponymous sound installation, coll. FCAC Geneva
free admission
Presentation
The work of Max Neuhaus (US, 1939-2009), his emblematic journey from the world of music to that of the sound arts, his role as the founding father of sound installation, and the presence in Geneva of one of his rare permanent works in the public domain are major references and a source of inspiration and motivation for the KorSonoR project. Furthermore, during his lifetime, Neuhaus produced several major exhibitions and projects in Switzerland, and the Max Neuhaus Estate lies in Zurich. The exhibition includes drawings, sketches and documents relating to the three projects he designed for Geneva: a Time Piece for the harbour (1984), which was never realised, a sound work presented as part of the Promenades exhibition which was organised by the Centre d’Art Contemporain at Parc Lullin in Genthod in 1985, and the Promenade du Pin sound installation which was produced in 2002 (coll. FCAC Genève) following a residency at CERN, which is accessible permanently on the top of the hill in this wooded park.
Biographical notes
Trained as a musician at the Manhattan School of Music, Neuhaus began his career performing the percussion repertoire of musicians such as Boulez and Stockhausen on international tours. He also performed live as a solo percussionist. In 1966, he stopped giving concerts and launched Listen, his first independent project as an artist, which took the form of collective listening walks in New York. After a first sound installation in 1967, he created his most famous installation, Time Square, in New York in 1977. Since then, his work has been presented on the contemporary art circuit: documenta 6, Cassel (1977); MoMA, New York (1979); Kunsthalle, Basel; Whitney Biennial, New York (1983); CNAC Le Magasin, Grenoble; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Kunsthalle, Bern (1989); La Voie Suisse, CH91 (1991); documenta 9, Cassel (1992); Capc, Bordeaux (1993); Villa Arson, Nice; Castello du Rivoli, Turin (1995); sonambiente, Akademie der Künste, Berlin (1996); Gwangju Biennial (1997); 99th Art Biennale, Venice; PS1, New York; Kunsthalle, Bern (2000); Museum of contemporary Art, Chicago (2006); The Menil Collection, Houston (2008); Ars Electronica, Linz; Performa, New York (2009); ZKM, Karlsruhe (2012); Frac Franche Comté, Besançon (2016).
Les Pianos Ne Poussent Pas Sur Les Arbres – Max Neuhaus is the first anthology in French of writings and interviews by Neuhaus, collected and presented by Daniele Balit and Matthieu Saladin. Published by Les Presses du Réel (2019).
Susan Philipsz
Susan Philipsz, The River Cycle III, floating footbridge under the Mont-Blanc Bridge. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Susan Philipsz, The River Cycle III, floating footbridge under the Mont- Blanc Bridge. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Susan Philipsz, The River Cycle III, floating footbridge under the Mont- Blanc Bridge. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Work on display
29.09 – 22.10.2023
8h-7pm
The River Cycle III, 2010
sound installation
Public space
Floating footbridge under the Mont-Blanc Bridge
1204 Genève
free access
Presentation
Susan Philipsz (GB, 1965, based in Berlin) explores the psychological and sculptural potential of sound. She uses sound and music to modify or enhance the acoustic qualities of an architectural or urban context, while offering a new reading of the music chosen—16th century ballads, Irish folk tunes, pop and rock songs—and the historical or narrative references they evoke. Each version of a work is unique as it resonates specifically in a given context, yet the plots and references are recognisable, addressing familiar themes of loss, nostalgia, hope and return. She often presents her work in public spaces and is particularly interested in places under bridges, for their very particular acoustic characteristics.
After considering several bridges on the Rhône, Philipsz chose to present The River Cycle III on the floating footbridge under the Mont-Blanc bridge. She particularly appreciated the physical, acoustic and symbolic qualities of this site. In The River Cycle III, she sings a capella excerpts from the lyrics of Pyramid Song (2001) by the English rock outfit Radiohead. The absence of musical accompaniment exposes the untrained quality of her voice, giving the work an unexpected sense of intimacy. The song tells the story of a drowning in the first person. Philipsz was drawn to the song “for its fantastic lyrics that convey a sense of solemn peace”. The lyrics are as follows:
I jumped in the river and what did I see?
Black-eyed angels swam with me
A moon full of stars and astral cars
All the figures I used to see
All my lovers were there with me
All my past and futures
And we all went to heaven in a little row boat
There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt
The lyrics refer in particular to bodies of water as sites of transition, metaphorically echoing the passage from lake to river, e.g. Lake Geneva to the Rhône river.
Biographical notes
Solo exhibitions: ARoS, Aarhus; Kunstmuseum Brandts, Odense (2023); SFMOMA, San Francisco; Museo Civico della Stampa, Mondovi (2022); Boca Raton Museum of Art; Kunstmuseum, Bonn; Kröner Müller Museum, Otterlo; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2021); Auckland Art Gallery; Pola Art Museum, Hakone (2020); Pulitzer Art Museum; Saint-Louis; Villa Cerutti, Castello du Rivoli, Turin (2019); The Tanks, Tate Modern, London; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden (2018); Baltic, Gateshead; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2017); Kunstverein, Hannover; Kunsthaus, Bregenz (2016); Tate Britain, London (2015); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2014). Group exhibitions: MAXII, Rome; Fondation Gulbekian, Lisbon (2023); Manifesta 14, Pristina (2022); Fondation Beyeler, Riehen-Basel (2020, 2019); Biennale de Québec (2019); 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015); Manifesta 10, St. Petersburg (2014); documenta 13, Cassel; Guangzhou Triennial (2012); Glasgow International (2010); Skulptur Projekte Münster (2007).
She was the winner of the Turner Prize in 2010. She is represented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.
Benoît Renaudin
Benoît Renaudin, LASER, sound installation, Le Commun. Photo © Julien Gremaud / Arta Sperto Benoît Renaudin, LASER, concert, 22.10.23, Le Commun. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Benoît Renaudin, LASER, sound installation, Le Commun. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Work on display
LASER, 2023
sound installation
creation
powder coated and glass structure (approx 180 x 40 x 60 cm), laser, ventilation, electronics, sound, keyboard, metal discs (one per day) ; metal discs presented on a wall
Scientific advisor: Benoît Trophème / interface development: Théo Soulie
Production Arta Sperto/KorSonoR, Geneva / This project received the support of the Bourse d’aide à la recherche, reprise et résidence 2022 from the City of Geneva.
free admission
Presentation
Researcher and artist Benoît Renaudin (FR/CH, 1985, based in Geneva) is involved in interface design, experimental music, instrument construction and sound installation. With Benoît Trophème, a doctor in experimental physics, he explores LASER (Light Amplified by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and in particular the acoustic sounds it emits. LASER is both a cutting-edge technology (glass cutting, microscope light amplification, etc.) and a very popular instrument (the sabres in Stars Wars, Jean-Michel Jarre’s harp, the capture machines in Ghost Busters, etc.). He works with the Atelier Arts-Sciences and the CEA (France’s Atomic Energy Commission) in Grenoble.
LASER is a sound installation consisting of a metal construction (approximately 50 × 50 × 180 cm high) containing a pro- grammed laser that plays a composition previously written by Renaudin. The laser burns an orchestration lasting a few minutes onto metal plates the size of 33 rpm vinyl records. At the end of the day, the metal plate is removed and placed in the venue, like a sound archive of the day’s production, or a visual and graphic extension of the sounds emitted for the public. A collection of circular plates develops from day to day throughout the exhibition.
Biographical notes
Associate researcher at HEAD – Genève, Geneva, associate artist at L’Abri, Geneva, since 2019. Exhibitions, projects, perfor- mances: Lavinia, performance – motion capture, performance, Grange de Dorigny – Biennale art/science; GIFF, Geneva (2023); Hexagone Scène Nationale Arts Sciences, Meylan-Grenoble (2023-24); Des cartes et des sons, performance, Les 6 Toits, Geneva (2022); Des Place(s), performance and VR, GIFF Geneva (2021); Cairo Sound Tour, guided sound performance-visit, Cairo; 101 Flutes, Festival Archipel, Geneva + Klang Moor Schoepfe, Geis (2021) + Fracanaüm, Lausanne; Radial, Basel (2022); Horde, sound performance, Festival de la Cité, Lausanne + L’Abri, Geneva (2017) + Le Lieu Unique, Nantes (2018). Collaborations: Mic Mac 3D, with Cie Too Hot Too Hoot, Gare du Nord, Basel; Usine Sonore, Biel; KantonSchule, Zurich; Fracanaüm, Lausanne; Cachalotte, with the collective Ouinch Ouinch, Emergentia, Geneva + Belluard, Fribourg (2022-2023); Par les Villages, with Théâtre Le Poche and La Bâtie, Geneva (2021); Contrevent(s), with Isis Fahny, La Bâtie, Geneva; Hexagone Scène Nationale Arts Sciences, Meylan-Grenoble (2019); Kaïro(s), with Isis Fahny, Théâtre St-Gervais, Geneva; Centre Artellewa, Cairo; Festival de la Cité, Lausanne, Théâtre Olympia, Tours, Festival Nouveau Cinéma, Montréal (2016–2018).
Anne Rochat
with
Jessica Aszodi, Laurent Bruttin, Contrechamps, Billy Demiguel, Ariel Garcia, Olga Kokcharova, Francisco Meirino, Serge Teuscher
Anne Rochat and invited artists, In Pulse, Flux Laboratory. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Anne Rochat and invited artists, In Pulse. Photo © Rachel Morend Anne Rochat and invited artists, In Pulse. Photo © Rachel Morend
Performative installation
29.09 – 22.10.2023
Wens – Thur and Sun 2pm-8pm
Fri – Sat 3pm-9pm
Performances with guests
29.09.2023
Jessica Aszodi (AU, 1986, based in Berlin)
30.09.2023
Francisco Meirino (CH, 1975, based in Lausanne)
06.10.2023
Serge Teuscher (CH, 1982, based in Lausanne)
07.10.2023
Laurent Bruttin (CH, 1977, based in Berlin)
13.10.2023
Billy Demiguel (CH, 1992, based in Lausanne)
14-15.10.2023
Contrechamps (Martina Brodbeck, Hans Egidi, Rada Hadjikostova, Noëlle Reymond)
20.10.2023
Olga Kockarova (RU/CH, 1985, based in Geneva)
21.10.2023
Ariel Garcia (CH, 1977, based in Lausanne)
In Pulse, 2023
immersive and participatory installation + guests live, ongoing performances
Team: Anne Rochat (artistic direction and performance) / Raphael Raccuia and Daniel Zea (development, research, composition) / Skander Mensi (development, research) / Pierre-Yves Borgeaud (trailer and teaser)
Laurent Bruttin (artistic collaboration) / Rachel Morend (artistic and logistical assistance)
Coproduced by Association Fargue, Arta Sperto/KorSonoR Geneva, Flux Laboratory Geneva, Arsenic Lausanne.
Flux Laboratory
5 rue de la Muse
1205 Genève
pay what you want
Presentation
Anne Rochat’s (CH, 1982, based in Berlin) artistic practice centres on her own body, with which she experiments with endurance, resistance and limits, essentially through performance. Whether she is ripping up the carpet of the Musée Jenish in Vevey with her teeth, walking the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia in full sun, swimming across Lac de Joux at night, or underwater in Lake Geneva, sharing a single source of air with her brother for two hours, she demonstrates a form of radical commitment in which the spirit takes precedence over suffering or pain.
In Pulse invites the audience to experience an immersive, interactive performance built around the heartbeat of each individual, captured on the body, transformed by a technological and compositional system, and amplified and broadcast into the venue. The organic, polyrhythmic sound work can be seen as a nod to György Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique pour 100 Métronomes (1962). The collective ritual, which is performed in near darkness, offers a unique opportunity of social cohesion and active listening to the beating of one’s own heart and that of others present, creating a kind of organic symphony of rare intensity. Guest musicians will use this sound material to create unique live sequences.
Biographical notes
Anne Rochat has presented her work at the following festivals: La Bâtie, Geneva (2020); Arctic Action, Svalbard (2018); Bone Festival, Bern (2017, 2015); Live Art Action, Gothenburg (2015); Festival Art IPA, Istanbul; Live Art Performance Festival, Guangzhou; Public Arts Festival, Cape Town (2014); Les Urbaines, Lausanne (2009); at the following biennales: Shanghai (2014); Maputo (2012); in theatres: Arsenic, Lausanne (2020, 2018, 2017); L’Usine, Geneva (2015); in museums and art centres: MCBA, Lausanne; Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing (2020); A4 Art Museum, Chengdu (2019); Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2018, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2012); Plateforme 10, Lausanne; Musée Tinguely, Basel (2017); Counter Space, Zurich (2016); Le Commun, Geneva; Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2015); Circuit, Lausanne (2012); Kunstmuseum, Bern (2011). She was Head of the Performance Department at édhéa, Sierre, until 2023. From September 2023, she will be a lecturer in the Architecture Department at EPFL, Lausanne. She won the Manor Vaud Cultural Prize in 2020, and the Visual Arts Prize of the Fondation Vaudoise pour la Culture 2022.
Roman Signer
+
Antoine Françoise
Roman Signer + Antoine Françoise, Restenfilme, ciné-concert, Les 6 toits, 02.10.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Roman Signer + Antoine Françoise, Restenfilme, ciné-concert, Les 6 toits, 02.10.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Antoine Françoise, Roman Signer, Olivier Kaeser, talking after the ciné-concert, 02.10.23. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Ciné-concert
02.10.2023
7.30pm
Restenfilme XXII
a compilation of Super 8 films transferred to video
by Roman Signer, projected onto a large screen.
51’19”, composition/improvisation by Antoine Françoise, piano and synthesisers
creation
Coproduced by Arta Sperto/KorSonoR and Contrechamps, Geneva
Les 6 toits
Avenue de Châtelaine 43
1203 Genève
Presentation
Roman Signer (CH, 1938, based in Saint-Gall) is an artist who has been creating sculptures, installations, drawings and, above all, actions in a variety of contexts since the 1970s. Videos of his actions are shown in his exhibitions. The Restenfilme are Super-8 film sequences that were made between 1975 and 1994 and transferred to video, documenting locations for actions—actions attempted, repeated or failed, remnants of actions and filmed notes. This material allows us to observe the artist’s working process, as well as his lively, playful, humorous spirit. Restenfilme XXII is a silent compilation of these sequences. It will be projected onto a large screen and pianist Antoine Françoise (CH, 1987, based in Geneva), who will have familiarised himself with the material beforehand, will offer an original prepared improvisation on piano and synthesisers. This is the third time that some of the Restenfilme have been projected with live accompaniment by a pianist, after Paris in 2015 and Basel in 2017, and the first time with Antoine Françoise.
Biographical notes
Solo exhibitions: Malmö Konsthall (2023); FRAC Franche-Comté, Besançon (2022); Bünder Kunstmuseum, Chur (2020); Kunsthaus Zug (2019); A4 Art Museum, Chengdu; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen; Istituto Svizzero, Rome (2018); Kunsthal Aarhus (2017); Dundee Contemporary Arts (2016); Barbican, The Curve, London (2015); KINDL, Berlin Museum of Contemporary Art, Hangzhou; Cafa Art Museum, Beijing (2014); High Line, New York (2013); Kunsthalle Mainz (2012); Swiss Institute, New York (2010), Secession, Vienna; Swiss Pavilion, Venice Art Biennale (1999). Biennales, etc.: Busan Biennale (2016); Drawing Biennial, Konsthall Oslo (2014); Marrakech Biennale (2012); Biennale de la photographie et des arts visuels, Liège (2010); Busan Biennale (2004); Skulptur Projekte Münster (1997); documenta 8, Cassel (1987); Venice Art Biennale (1976). He is represented by Galerie Art:Concept, Paris.
Antoine Françoise is artistic director of the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (La Chaux-de-Fonds), principal pianist with the Ensemble Contrechamps (Geneva) and the London Contemporary Orchestra, and also plays with the London Sinfonietta, the Aurora Orchestra (London) and the Ensemble Nikel.
Naama Tsabar
Naama Tsabar, Barricades (Rupture), performance with Rose Blanshei, Fielded, Wolf Weston, Le Commun, 28-30.09.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Naama Tsabar, Barricades (Rupture), performance with Rose Blanshei, Fielded, Wolf Weston, Le Commun, 28-30.09.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto Naama Tsabar, Barricades (Rupture), performance with Rose Blanshei, Fielded, Wolf Weston, Le Commun, 28-30.09.2023. Photo © Emmanuelle Bayart / Arta Sperto
Œuvre présentée
Barricade (Ruptures), 2019
installation specifically adapted for the space, to be activated by the public
Microphones, microphone stands, cables, speakers
free admission
Performances
28.09.2023
during the opening
29.09.2023
3pm and 5pm
30.09.2023
3pm and 5pm
Barricade (Ruptures), 2019
performance, 25′
perforrmers Rose Blanshei, Fielded, Wolf Weston
free admission
Presentation
Naama Tsabar’s (IL, 1982, based in New York) practice fuses elements of sculpture, music, performance and architecture. Her works expose hidden spaces and systems, rethink gendered narratives and transform the visual experience into one of active participation. She draws attention to what is silent and invisible by propagating sound through space and sculpture. Working with local communities of female performers and gender non-conforming people, she continues to write a new feminist and queer history.
Barricade (Ruptures) is an installation made up of 46 microphones and microphone stands, arranged in three formations: a circle, a square and a triangle respectively. The microphone cables cover the floor in a graphic and spatial composition, reflecting the trajectory of the sound transmitted. Each section of the barricade emits sound through a dedicated loudspeaker. The spatial arrangement of the microphone stands acts as both a barrier and a facilitator, as the performance space is physically and acoustically delimited. During the performances, each of the three performers sings at the centre of one of the installations. Outside the performances, the entire installation remains plugged in and visitors are free to use it. As well as providing a sonic, visual and spatial experience, Barricade (Ruptures) also has a metaphorically political dimension. Indeed, the microphone and the dissemination of speech and sound are also instruments of power and control. Those who have the power of speech and the ability to broadcast it control the messages and their content, and control who they are intended for and who is deprived of them.
Biographical notes
Solo exhibitions: Hamburger Banhof, Berlin (2023 forthcoming); Bass Museum, Miami; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Connecticut; KinoSaito Arts Center, New York (2022); Center for Contemporary Art, Israel; Faena Art Center, Buenos Aires; The Fireplace Project, New York; Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz (2018); Museum of Art and Design, New York (2017); Guggenheim Museum, New York (2014). Group exhibitions: SFMOMA, San Francisco; A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town; Rewire Festival, The Hague (2023); Moody Center for the Arts, Houston; Seattle Art Museum; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; High Line, New York (2022); The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2021); Ballroom Marfa (2021); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2019); CCS Bard + Hessel Museum of Art, New York (2018). Performances: Latifa Echakch Project for Messe Platz, Art Basel (2023); Elevation 1049, Gstaad (2019); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017). She is represented by Galerie Dvir, Tel Aviv, Paris.
Programme
E Exhibition
P Performance
M Sound walk
S Symposium
C Context
A Digital application
Exhibition
28.09.2023
6pm–9pm
E
Opening at Le Commun and at Flux Laboratory
With performances by :
Naama Tsabar
Barricade (Ruptures)
performance with Rose Blanshei, Fielded, Wolf Weston
Ban Lei
153 returning birds
activation live
Le Commun
10 rue des Vieux-Grenadiers
Bât. J
1205 Genève
Flux Laboratory
5 rue de la Muse
1205 Genève
free admission
29.09–22.10.2023
11am–6pm
E
Exhibition with Ban Lei, Rudy
Decelière, Kim Gordon, Christina Kubisch, Max Neuhaus, Benoît Renaudin, Naama Tsabar
Le Commun
10 rue des Vieux-Grenadiers
Bât. J
1205 Genève
free admission
29.09–22.10.2023
Wens – Thur and Sun 2pm-8pm
Fri, Sat 3pm-9pm
P
Anne Rochat
In Pulse
immersive and participatory installation + invited artists live
Flux Laboratory
5 rue de la Muse
1205 Genève
pay what you want
With performances
invited artists
29.09.2023
Jessica Aszodi
30.09.2023
Francisco Meirino
06.10.2023
Serge Teuscher
07.10.2023
Laurent Bruttin
13.10.2023
Billy Demiguel
14-15.10.2023
Contrechamps (Martina Brodbeck, Hans Egidi, Rada Hadjikostova, Maximilian Haft, Noëlle Reymond)
20.10.2023
Olga Kockarova
21.10.2023
Ariel Garcia
P
Flux Laboratory
5 rue de la Muse
1205 Genève
pay what you want
29.09-22.10.2023
8am-7pm
E
Susan Philipsz
The River Cycle III
sound installation
Public space
Floating footbridge under the Mont-Blanc Bridge
1204 Genève
free access
29.09 – 22.10.2023
Tues – Sun 11am-6pm
M
Christina Kubisch
Electrical Walk Geneva
sound walk
Public space, information and departure at Le Commun
10 rue des Vieux-Grenadiers
Bât. J
1205 Genève
free admission
Performances et one-off projects
29.09.2023
3pm et 5pm
30.09.2023
3pm et 5pm
P
Naama Tsabar
Barricade (Ruptures)
performance avec Rose Blanshei, Fielded, Wolf Weston
Le Commun
10 rue des Vieux-Grenadiers
Bât. J
1205 Genève
free admission
29.09.2023
3.30pm
30.09.2023
3.30pm
01.10.2023
3.30pm
P
Ban Lei
153 returning birds
live activation
Le Commun
10 rue des Vieux-Grenadiers
Bât. J
1205 Genève
free admission
29.09.2023
7pm
P
Ari Benjamin Meyers
Forecast (LX23)
performance/concert with Laura Eichten, Heidi Heidelberg, Carsten Hein, Jan Terstegen
Grand Théâtre
Boulevard du Théâtre 11
1204 Genève
01.10.2023
11am-6pm
04 – 07.10.2023
2pm-7pm
08.10.2023
2pm-6pm
E
Olga Kokcharova
Retours Loge
sound installation
Comédie de Genève
Esplanade Alice-Bailly 1
1207 Genève
bookings www.comedie.ch
01.10.2023
11am, 2pm and 4pm
M
Olga Kokcharova
Retours Loge
sound walk in and around the building
02.10.2023
7.30pm
P
Roman Signer + Antoine Françoise
Restenfilme XXII
film/concert
Les 6 toits
Avenue de Châtelaine 43
1203 Genève
06.10.2023
9pm
P
Performances/concerts
Commented listening session on artists’ vinyl records, proposed by activeRat, Bern/Geneva, presented by Laurent Schmid, with Zoé Aubry, Douna Lim & Théo Pesso, Nathalie Rebholz, Caroline Schattling Villeval
Asi Föcker & Raoul Doré, accel./cresc., proposed by Klang Moor Schopfe, Gais
Magda Drozd & Nicola Genovese, Viscera, proposed by Oto Sound Museum – Zaira Oram, Zurich
Various records played by Laurent Schmid
Cave 12
Rue de la Prairie 4
1202 Genève
free admission
15.10.2023
4pm
4.45pm
5.15pm
P
Agnès Geoffray
Fléau
performance with Mateo Castelblanco, Jérémie Lamourez, Mordjane Mira, Sylvia Rosat, Bobby Scala
Musée d’art et d’histoire
Rue Charles-Galland 2
1206 Genève
free access (entry MAH pay what you want)
19.10.2023
7pm
P
Tarek Atoui
performance
Musée d’art et d’histoire, Salle Duval
Rue Charles-Galland 2
1206 Genève
free access, booking recommended www.mahmah.ch
(entry MAH pay what you want)
20.10.2023
8pm
P
Emilie Ding + Alizée Lenox
sound performance echoing Emilie Ding’s installation How High Can You Count – A Temporary Monument on the facade of Banque Mirabaud
Public space
Plaine de Plainpalais at 29 Bd Georges-Favon
1204 Genève
free access
22.10.2023
4pm
P
Benoît Renaudin
LASER
concert
Le Commun
10 rue des Vieux-Grenadiers
Bât. J
1205 Genève
free admission
Symposium
06.09.2023
10am-6pm
07.09.2023
10am-6pm
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Symposium on sound arts in Switzerland
Bâtiment d’art contemporain, conference room
10 rue des Vieux-Grenadiers
1205 Genève
Permanent works and projects in Geneva
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Max Neuhaus, Promenade du Pin
(2002, coll. FCAC Genève)
sound installation, at the top of the hill of the Promenade du Pin
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Emilie Ding, How High You Can Count – A Temporary Monument
installation of fluorescent tubes, visible at night, a tribute to Pauline Oliveros
29 bd Georges-Favon building facade, Plaine de Plainpalais
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Bélvédère Sonore Geneva
smartphone application,
31 sound compositions to listen, each echoing a work in the public (contemporary art funds of the canton and the cities of Geneva, Lancy, Plan-les-Ouates)
Map
Presentation of KorSonoR
The DNA of Arta Sperto
Arta Sperto (“artistic experience” in Esperanto) curates, produces, organises and publishes essentially multi- and transdisciplinary artistic projects. A nomadic organisation, it aims to support and showcase the cross-disciplinary approaches that many artists are developing as a matter of course, while contemporary culture is still more often than not organised by field, whether in terms of cultural policies, institutions, funding or the media. Arta Sperto seeks to blur the boundaries between artistic fields, to arouse the curiosity of audiences and to offer hybrid artistic experiences in different kinds of contexts.
Multi- and trans-disciplinarity is not an end in itself, but an open and plural means to perceive, understand and question our contemporary world. The artistic experiments featured by Arta Sperto aim to stimulate the senses, the intellect and the memory, to increase awareness of people, space and the environment, and to question cultural and societal issues, both individually and collectively.
In 2020 and 2022, Arta Sperto organised two editions of the exhibition/festival Dance First Think Later (DFTL) at Le Commun and in partner venues in Geneva. DFTL explores the meeting ground between dance, performance art and the visual arts, questioning gestures and movements, their meanings and interpretations, in several cultures and through several prisms: sensuality, social issues, politics, technology, rituals and gender.
In 2023, Arta Sperto will present KorSonoR, whose objectives are similar to those of DFTL, this time focusing on the converging fields between sound and visual arts. With these two events on the edges of visual, sound and performing arts, Arta Sperto has laid the foundations for a “trans- disciplinary art centre”, which currently has no dedicated venue and no real equivalent in Switzerland. Arta Sperto’s ambition is to develop Dance First Think Later and KorSonoR on an alternating biennial basis.
KorSonoR in Geneva
Geneva is a city where music shines. Prestigious and pioneering orchestras and ensembles, concert halls of all shapes and sizes, mainstream and cutting-edge festivals, open-air venues, specialised schools—every style and every generation has its own figures and landmarks. Within this thriving scene, some organisations stand out for their experimental, cross-disciplinary approach, such as Archipel, Contrechamps, Cave 12, Ensemble Vide, Les Yeux Grand Fermés, Belvédère Sonore, etc., demonstrating a spirit of collaboration and openness that is unrivalled in other cultural fields. Geneva is also home to one of the rare permanent works in the public space by American artist Max Neuhaus (1939-2009)—who is regarded as the “father” of sound installation. This work, Promenade du Pin (2002), which is part of the FCAC collection, offers the attentive onlooker a unique auditory experience of the urban environment.
KorSonoR is rooted in Geneva’s musical and artistic land- scape and takes Neuhaus’s work as its pivotal point. Indeed, the American musician began his career performing all over the world as a soloist and interpreter, notably of Stockhausen and Boulez, before giving up his concert career to devote himself to the larger field of sound, creating sound installations for built and outdoor spaces. Since then, his work has been showcased mainly in contemporary art institutions. It will be presented in the form of documents in the KorSonoR ex- hibition. His career is emblematic of the distinction between music and sound art, and I am inspired to explore the field of sound art in a way that is different from and complement- ary to what is already available in Geneva. The players in the above-mentioned organisations have backgrounds in the field of music, whereas mine is in art history and exhibitions. KorSonoR aims to explore the resonances between sound and visual arts through the prism of exhibitions, installations, in situ works, performance/concerts, videos and cross- disciplinary collaboration. The aim of the project is to perceive, experiment with and understand how sound is inherent in the human body and in life, whether we approach it from a sensitive, social, spatial, architectural, urban or environmental perspective.
The links between sound art, music and the visual arts have been numerous and fruitful since the beginning of the 20th century. Since the turn of the 21st century, exhibitions devoted to sound art and the relationship between the visual arts and music have featured regularly in the programmes of museums and contemporary art centres. At the same time, sound artists are integrating into their research and practice elements linked to architecture, the city, the environment and the climate, particularly through acoustic ecology, as well as to politics and social cohesion. KorSonoR takes account of this history and these developments and has designed a tailor-made event for Geneva, which fits within a Swiss and international network that it also aims to galvanise.
The central venue for KorSonoR will be Le Commun, with an exhibition and live activation of some of the works. Flux Laboratory will feature an immersive and participatory installation, involving artistic collaborations by several artists, including a string quintet from Ensemble Contrechamps. A sound work will be showcased on the floating footbridge under the Mont Blanc bridge. A sound portrait of Comédie de Genève will be presented in this major cultural building in Geneva. Ad hoc projects will be on display at Les 6 Toits, Le Grand Théâtre, the Musée d’art et d’histoire, Cave12 and in the public space. This rare overview of Geneva’s venues and institutions in a single event demonstrates Arta Sperto’s determination to develop its projects on a city-wide scale, in a spirit of openness, cross-disciplinarity and complement- arity with existing events, seeking to reach several audiences, especially through its many partnerships.
KorSonoR brings together 14 artists, duos or groups, for a total of 28 artists, not counting the performers. Several generations (from 31 to 75 years old), nationalities (9) and cultural backgrounds make up a heterogeneous group with converging passions. Arta Sperto produces or co-produces the creation of 8 works and co-produces the specific adaptation of 6 other works.
To ensure that KorSonoR is part of a wider ecosystem, Arta Sperto is also organising a symposium on sound art in Switzerland, which will bring together around twenty organisations that are active in this field.
A publication including iconographic documentation of KorSonoR as well as original texts is envisaged after the event. Its production will depend on the financial support that can be raised for this purpose.
Olivier Kaeser
Arta Sperto / KorSonoR 2023 Team
Olivier Kaeser, director of Arta Sperto, curator of KorSonoR
Marion Huyghues-Despointes, general coordinator, administration, production, communication
Sérafin Brandenberger, exhibition management
Thierry Simonot + Jean-Baptiste Bosshard, sound management
Schaffter Sahli, visual identity
Jérémie Wenger, webmaster
Bérénice Courtin, social media & communications coordination
Sophie Fontaine, hosting coordination, volunteers and administration support
Malak Ojjeh, symposium coordination and support
Emmanuelle Bayart, performance photography
Julien Gremaud, exhibition photography
Stéphane Darioly / Videocraft, video recording and editing
Delphine Cherix, school group visits with École & Culture
Guided tours for groups on request, media@artasperto.ch
Symposium on sound art in Switzerland
6 and 7 October 2023
Bâtiment d’art contemporain
Download the Symposium programme HERE
Presentation
The field of sound arts is vast and diverse, and its definitions are subject to several modulations. By its very nature, the field is multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary, lying as it does at the boundaries of several musical sectors (contemporary, experimental, electronic, ethnomusicological), the plastic and visual arts, installation, sound poetry, certain experimental performing arts and acoustic ecology. It is perceived through listening, the visual, the sensory and the spatial, and is deployed in many different contexts, such as festivals, exhibition halls, concert halls, listening rooms, radio, the internet, architecture and public spaces.
In discussions with a number of people involved in this field in Switzerland, Arta Sperto became aware of the existence of several networks with varying geographies and configurations, who share interests and research, but who know each other in very different ways. This is due in part to geographical, linguistic and cultural differences, but it probably has even more to do with the different artistic backgrounds and distinct approaches to the field of sound arts.
The main aims of this symposium are to share experience and knowledge, and to bring people and artists together to build, consolidate and diversify a potential ‘community’. Some twenty entities, representing the diversity of sound arts practices in Switzerland, presented the orientations and challenges of their projects. The symposium at the Bâtiment d’art contemporain (BAC) was extended by the Live Evening Symposium at cave 12, where the programme was devised by entities invited by Arta Sperto.
Participants
Speakers at the symposium, BAC conference room
Olivier Kaeser – Arta Sperto / KorSonoR, Genève
Manon Pierrehumbert / Les Amplitudes, La Chaux-de-Fonds
Marie Jeanson, Denis Schuler / Archipel, Genève
Jean-Paul Felley / Biennale Son Valais
Jonathan Friggeri – zonoff / Belvédère sonore, Genève
Nicolas Field, Thomas Florin / Konnekt, Genève
Nicolas Schaerer / Klang Moor Schopfe, Geis
Petra Krausz, Denis Schuler / Ensemble Vide, Genève
Thomas Burckhalter / Norient, Berne/Berlin
Madeleine Leclair / Musée d’ethnographie, Ethnomusicologie et AIMP, Genève
Ramon de Marco / Idee und Klang, Bâle + Swiss Society of Acoustic Ecology
Nathalie Rebholz / Joyfully Waiting, Genève
Ludwig Berger / Sonic Topologies, Zurich
Céline Carridroit, Marie Jeanson / Les yeux grand fermés, Genève
Jonas Kocher / Bruit, Bienne
Francesca Ceccherini – Zaira Oram / Oto Sound Museum, Zurich
Augustin Maurs / The Music Chamber – artgenève, Genève
Marion Innocenzi / Cave 12, Genève
Vanessa Cimorelli, Luc Meier / La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz
Thibault Walter / LUFF + Rip on/off, Lausanne
Antoine Chessex / Multiple, Zurich
Performances Symposium Live Evening at cave 12
– Laurent Schmid / activeRat, Berne/Genève, with Zoé Aubry, Douna Lim & Théo Pesso, Nathalie Rebholz, Caroline Schattling Villeval
– Asi Föcker & Raoul Doré, accel./cresc., proposed by Klang Moor Schopfe, Gais
– Magda Drozd & Nicola Genovese, Viscera, proposed by Zaira Oram – Oto Sound Museum, Zurich
Partnerships and sponsors
Direction and production partners : Compagnie Fargue, Contrechamps, Flux Laboratory, Comédie de Genève
Hosting partners : Bâtiment d’art contemporain, Cave 12, Grand Théâtre, Les 6 toits, Musée d’art et d’histoire
Communication partner : Festival Archipel
KorSonoR is generously supported by : Ville de Genève, Canton de Genève Fonds Cantonal d’art contemporain DCS Genève, Loterie Romande Genève, Pro Helvetia, Fondation de bienfaisance Pierre et Andrée Haas, Fondation UBS pour la culture, Fondation Leenaards, Fondation Nicati-de Luze, Fondation SUISA, Ernst und Olga Gubler-Hablützel Stiftung, Fonds culturel ProLitteris, Dr Georg und Josi Guggenheim Stiftung.
