Off Screen
spatial soundings & silent musicalities
From 25-08-2007 until 07-10-2007
Mark Bain, Janet Cardiff & Georges Bures Miller, Justin Bennett, Jeroen Diepenmaat, Jacob Kirkegaard, Ann Lislegaard, Christian Marclay, Rä di Martino, Antonietta Peeters, Karen Russo, Michael Snow en Imogen Stidworthy.

Opening: Friday, August 24, 5:00 p.m.

http://www.montevideo.nl/en/nieuws/detail.php?id=144&archief=ja&showjaar=2007&beginjaar=2007Exhibition text

With their videos, audio works and sculptures in the exhibition ‘Off Screen’ the artists investigate visual and acoustic space in relation to one another. The diverse ‘translations’ that the artists do via various technological media demonstrate our ambiguous, subjective relation to image, text and sound.

We are today increasingly better trained to employ several senses at the same time. A telephone is also a camera, radio and internet gadget, and with a video i-pod you can listen to music or watch films. Different functions come together in one device, so that we become increasingly accustomed to dealing with more than one form of input at the same time. Many artists strive for the complete convergence of image and sound in their work. But despite the continued popularity of video clips, films and vj performances, at the moment there is also a perceptible movement against this audiovisual fusion.

The discrepancy between image and sound is central for the exhibition 'Off Screen', in which the tension between visual and auditive space is sought out and exploited. A soundless but yet ‘musical’ approach is to be found in the work of Christian Marclay and Antonietta Peeters. In his work Mixed Reviews Marclay has someone ‘translate’ concert reviews into sign language, from text to facial expressions and arm movements. With her microphone sculptures Antonietta Peeters shows crocheted cloth objects that produce no noise, but on the contrary, with the fabric and wool used absorb sounds present in the space. The installation by Jeroen Diepenmaat indeed does make noises. A series of stuffed birds produce ‘dead’ bird sounds from record players. Their beaks function as the pick-up needles, so that the dead birds resurrect sounds once recorded from live birds.

In her installation Ann Lislegaard uses sound and light to show that the image and experience of space change, demonstrating that space is not something fixed, but rather is subjectively experienced. In the video Hill Climbing by Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, someone tries to reach an infinitely distant mountain top. This work is comprised of a 'binaural' soundtrack which permits the viewer to experience the sound in a 3-dimensional manner, as if actually present. It makes clear the dichotomy between what out brains ‘see’ and what our senses perceive.

The manipulative effect of text and communication in image and sound is demonstrated in the works Battles Under the Sea of Ice by Karen Russo and La Camera by Rä di Martino. The two main figures in Rä di Martino’s work do not express their own personal thoughts, but are mouthpieces for the views of persons who have been interviewed, both recently (in interviews carried out by the artist) and in the past (from archives). Karen Russo’s main character has a brain disorder called aphasia, as a result of which text, pictures and meaning no longer correspond for him. She links this with a story in which someone loses his orientation, and ultimately also his consciousness.

In his video Prelude Michael Snow shows what happens when sound and images no longer connect with one another, as we are used to their doing in a film. The image originates from a single shot from a camera turning with a stand, where every second counts. The actions in this prelude come along as sound, as verbal descriptions and as visual data. Only in the middle of the room, half-way through the film, do sound, image and action briefly coincide.

Finally, in the exhibition there are amplified sounds that we normally miss entirely. Mark Bain amplifies sounds that come from outside, making them audible and palpable inside. With very sensitive microphones, in the forbidden zone around Chernobyl Jacob Kirkegaard has recorded sounds that an empty church, concert hall and swimming pool produce. The exhibition Off Screen constantly tests the visitor’s auditive and visual perception.


The exhibition is open Tuesday through Saturday from 1:00 ­ 6:00 p.m.; also open on the first Sunday of the month. Entry: € 2,50 (1,50 with discount)

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