{kA}: Oblivious to Gravity (Keine Ahnung von Schwerkraft)
Building-Sound Compositions in (half-)public spaces
Exhibition about a series of works on the artistic exploration of building-sound
(2010-2019)
by Gerriet K. Sharma
Errant Sound opens its doors to the public again! We warmly invite you to the exhibition “{kA}: Oblivious to Gravity” („Keine Ahnung von Schwerkraft“) by Gerriet K. Sharma, dedicated to the artistic exploration of building-sound. Between 2010 and 2019, the sound artist and composer artistically interrogated different public and private architectures in relation to their sonic characteristics and peculiarities. Site-specific sounds were recorded and composed by him, were reorganized, transformed and made tangible for audiences in multi-channel loudspeaker installations. The building-sound compositions were recorded binaurally with a Kunstkopf and are now made documentarily experienceable at Errant Sound with 2 headphone installations per building.
{kA}: Oblivious to Gravity (Keine Ahnung von Schwerkraft)
Opening: June 11th at 6 pm, artist talk at 7:30 pm
Exhibition: June 12th until 27th, from 5 pm to 9 pm (Thu-Sun)
Event: June 18th at 7 pm: Lecture by Prof. Dr. Stephan Günzel – “VRraum. Perception and Virtual Spatiality.”
Closing: June 27, 2021, starting at 5 pm, from 7 pm on discussion with Gerriet K. Sharma on sound, architecture and vacant buildings, with an acoustic input by Brandon LaBelle (not physically present), moderated by Janine Eisenächer.
https://www.facebook.com/errantsound/
Gerriet K. Sharma: keine Ahnung von Schwerkraft, Würzburg – Villa03 (2011)
The exhibition presents 2 of the in total 6 building-sound compositions per week in a constant setting (1st week: Würzburg/ Villa03 and Graz/ Sauraugasse 4 // 2nd week: Murau/ Alte Gerberei and Zagreb/ French Pavilion // 3rd week: Cologne/ Wire-Tapped Voids and Severinstraße 214-218). The reading room especially prepared for this exhibition with the respective publications and the online-research catalogue offer the opportunity to follow the working processes, Sharma’s artistic research method and approach in quiet and to experience the buildings visually as well.
Find more information about the work below and at:
https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/842817/842818
10 years after the beginning of this artistic work and series of works with the Kanzlei für Raumbefragung (together with Saskia Reither and Nico Bergmann), the artistic practice and conditions of building-sound compositions as well as the social, architectural, historical and musical space are reflected from a current perspective. Against the backdrop of the increasing experience of digital and virtual spaces and a progressive gentrification and real estate-speculation as well as the debate on immersion, the question of our need for space and our perception of space is urgently raised anew. Sharma’s work, in its complexity and multi-layeredness, offers many access points for sound-artistic and perceptual-political questions of today.
Please note:
As listening to the building-sound compositions requires some time and as there are four listening stations in the exhibition, attendance is limited to 4 people at a time per hour. This includes the reading room. We mainly offer one-hour stays (17-18h/ 18h-19h/ 19h-20h/ 20h-21h) but two-hour stays can also be booked if possible. Register via e-mail to: sharma@kavs.cc
Please, bring proof of a negative rapid test and an FFP2-mask. The mask can be removed at the listening station itself.
Gerriet K. Sharma: keine Ahnung von Schwerkraft, Graz 1 – Sauraugasse 4 (2011)
+++ About the work +++
“{kA}: Oblivious to Gravity” is a series of works in which different public and private architectures have been artistically interrogated in relation to their sonic properties and peculiarities since 2010. Site-specific sounds were composed, reorganized, transformed and made tangible for the public in multi-channel loudspeaker installations. The aim of the series of works is the artistic staging of previously unheard and unheard sound spaces in vacant everyday architectures. This is accompanied by a sensitization for the individual sound of buildings and thus of living spaces. That is, the works are created in places that usually serve or have served a different purpose and which, due to their structural condition, history and surroundings, become the starting point or integral part of the sound composition and its presentation. Within the framework of the series, the temporary rededication of a vacant site took place in each case, which as “empty”, useless in the economic sense, usually hermetically sealed off from the environment for many years, awaits its demolition or gutting, but at the same time harbors its own history, design and atmosphere. These peculiarities were to be experienced in the artistic staging. The one-sided – mostly pejorative – way of seeing or listening to these empty spaces or even non-places in our immediate neighborhood should be expanded through the alternative interpretation of the place. These non-places are also opportunities.
Using a self-developed instrument consisting of software, loudspeakers and microphones, the spatial acoustics of the building were explored, existing furniture, building materials and surrounding space were included in the composition and brought into the perception of the visitor. Acoustic coordinates of the interpenetrating sound spaces on site were measured, recorded, artistically interpreted, shifted in the building, mirrored and rhythmized. Subtle, quiet sounds create islands of listening in suites of rooms, lead through the building, penetrate conduits, and flow through floors.
