Al Lado Del Silencio

[ed osborn <edo@xxxxxxxxxx>]

AL LADO DEL SILENCIO
(Next to Silence)

Sound art exhibition and performances

Press conference:	Thursday, May 8, at 11:30 h.
The artists will be present

Opening:	Thursday, May 8, at 20 h.

Artists shown:	Rolf Julius, Ed Osborn, Ute Safrin and Akio Suzuki

Exhibition dates:	from May 9 through June 14, 2003

Open Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 to 14 h. and 17 to 20 h. Free entranc=
e

Performances:	May 9 and 10, at 20 h. Free entrance

May 9, at 20 h.: Rolf Julius, Ute Wassermann, Sing a Small Song, Ute 
Wassermann, Thrills Thrills and Ed Osborn, Material Hand. Electronic 
music and voice.
May 10, at 20 h.: Junko Wada and Akio Suzuki, Tsuki-kagami. Music and dance.

---------------

Metr=F2nom-Fundaci=F3 Rafael Tous d'Art Contemporani is a pioneering 
space in Spain in the exploration of Sound Art. In this exhibition, 
curated by Maija Julius, several sound artists have been asked to 
establish a dialogue with the exhibition rooms at Metr=F2nom, stressing 
their specific architectural traits.

Al lado del silencio presents four artists from three different 
continents, that show their work in Barcelona for the first time, and 
that have in common to work and produce in Berlin, the center for 
Sound Art in Europe.

The exhibition deals with the issue of silence and spatial emptiness, 
as a contrast with the flooding of images and sounds/noises we are 
daily exposed to. The art works step backwards and let the exhibition 
rooms talk: from this starting point, Al lado del silencio centers on 
the balance between space and art work, between silence and sound. 
The empty spaces, both acoustically and of objects, are structured 
through sound: the works by Rolf Julius, Ed Osborn, Ute Safrin and 
Akio Suzuki generate a reflective experience on silence from 
different points of view.

Perception plays an important role in this exhibition. The dimensions 
of the installations and of sound, in relationship with the space, 
are modified as the spectator moves through the room. The visitor is 
invited, by the different visual components, to approach the 
sculptural qualities of each work. The concentration of low sounds 
with slight variations make all other sources of sound disappear, and 
only listening carefully the music appears and, as a counterpart, so 
does silence. Through a reduction to the essential and a 
revalorization of details, specific qualities of Metr=F2nom's 
architecture and physical space are highlighted.

In Project 16 sounds (red - black), by Rolf Julius (Germany), 
acoustic and visual perception blend. The physical elements in the 
installation are mounds of color pigments lying on glass sheets; from 
underneath, sound form nature and instruments emerge. In Julius' 
work, visual and acoustic elements are independent and equivalent, 
and =93emptiness" -which generates both closeness and distance- becomes 
a formal element.

Akio Suzuki (Japan) is also interested in the interaction between 
closeness and distance. The sounds of his Analapos, 
spiral-eco-instruments developed by the artist in the 70's, probe on 
the acoustics of the Central exhibition hall at Metr=F2nom, and make 
the space sound. 

Divided horizontally, the installations by Suzuki and Julius are a 
unique collaboration by both artists, in a combination where the 
silences of an art work make the other audible. This collaboration 
presents the possibility to read the two works as one.

The Nil exhibition room houses the installation Feldstimmen, by Ed 
Osborn (USA).  It consists of a set of vertical poles, each holding a 
loudspeaker on its end. The poles have a fixed base and shudder 
intermittently, producing an unsteady wobbling of both the pole and 
the speaker.  The sounds heard are a combination of long tones and 
speech-like sounds.  The long tones change gradually over time and 
allow various subtle components of the tones to emerge and recede. 
These create a slowly undulating sound field which varies from 
extremely quiet to room-filling volume and includes sub-audio to 
mid-ranges frequencies; it has a strong and tactile physical 
presence.  The speech-like sounds form a kind of punctuation for 
these longer tones and allude to a human-like presence floating among 
them.

Para dos, by Ute Safrin (Germany) is presented in the symmetrical 
Sequi and Mat exhibition rooms, and blends acoustic and sculptural 
complexity in the minimum space. The visitor can closely follow, in 
the strict sense of the word, the route followed by sound in the 
physical space of the exhibition.

Performance sessions

As an important part of the exhibition, there will be, on May 9 and 
10, performances by the artists in the exhibition, in which the 
singer Ute Wassermann (Germany) and the dancer y Junko Wada (Japan) 
will also be invited. These sessions will present their works live, 
giving the audiences the possibility to perceive the space of 
Metr=F2nom in a continuous, visual and danceable form.

With the support of the Goethe Institut and the collaboration of Lufthansa

METR=D2NOM - Fundaci=F3 Rafael Tous d'Art Contemporani - c/ Fusina, 9 - 
08003 Barcelona
tel. (34) 93.268.4298, fax (34) 93.268.4214
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Open Tuesday through Satruday, from 11 to 14 h., and from 17 to 20 h. 
=46ree entrance
Press: Anna Guarro, aguarro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-- 

Ed Osborn
Oakland / Berlin
edo@xxxxxxxxxx
http://roving.net 

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