6-channel sound installation · 10 min · 2019
Shown in the group exhibition ‘Dock / Ancien Palais de Justice’, Les Brasseurs, Liège, 12 January – 2 February 2019
The work
Due to its physical, socio-political and direct impacts, nowadays the importance of sonic welfare is gaining extra significances in the societies of humans. In this piece, the artist employed field-recording and mix techniques in order to portray an accurate representation of the sounds that surrounds his living space. These set of sounds are recorded within a set of blocks in a planned residential complex (Apadana Residential Society), in Tehran, which is indeed constructed by French and Iranian architects, a type of neighbourhood that would never experience changes, in the terms of construction or destruction of buildings; this non-altering nature of buildings and the impossibility of avoiding unwanted sounds have contributed into the development of a sense of collective echoic memory as people work and live there for a long periods of time.
The building architecture can be associated with the architecture of the ’70s and the rough use of concrete in its exterior surfaces as an instance of Béton-Brut. These set of sounds are taken from somewhere between the Liberty (Shahyad) square, Tehran-Karaj highway, the bus terminal, and Mehrabad airport.
This piece strives to stress on the point that how chaotic systems of sounds can do harm or good, they can be extremely annoying for a newcomer while it is a sense of identity to others. In order to go to the extremes, the exaggerated use of noises in the central speaker confronts the audience with the harsh atmosphere of equipment for centralized ventilation infrastructure systems while other sounds represents silence and the sound from birds and cars in the distance.
Regardless of the private nature of personal experience, these sets of sounds, are the very exact soundscapes that the artist shares with his neighbors; this is also what they have heard throughout their lives in this neighborhood, no matter if they were at home/ school or playing outside, once recorded it turns into a true bringer of nostalgia and identity for some people, something irreplaceable and unique.
A second, 20-minute version was performed live on 27 July 2019 at Noise vs. Noise #2, Studio Markof, Tehran, as part of Limited Access Festival 8 (event page).
The exhibition
‘Dock / Ancien Palais de Justice’ is a sound installation and listening space by Paul Devens. Its starting point is the courthouse that France built at Cap Manuel in Dakar shortly before Senegal’s independence in 1960, a modernist concrete building by Daniel Babani and Pierre Roux-Dorlut that later became a venue of the Dak’Art biennale. In the gallery, microphone stands and running audiotape trace the building’s original floor plan, linking the resonance of its past with sounds recorded today.
Around ideas of habitat and identity, and how they change when a situation is in transition, 21 sound artists were invited to compose a soundscape for the project. Their contributions were presented in a listening space with surround sound, curated by Cedrik Fermont and Paul Devens. Concrete Jungle was one of them.
- Venue: Les Brasseurs, art contemporain, Rue du Pont 26/28, 4000 Liège, Belgium
- Dates: 12 January – 2 February 2019, Wednesday to Saturday, 14:00–18:00
- Opening: 12 January 2019, 18:00, with a short speech by curator and art historian Mique Eggermont and a concert by Elsa M’Bala, Cedrik Fermont and Paul Devens
- Coordinated and curated by: Les Brasseurs (Sarah Charlier, Corentin Lahaye, Jérôme Mayer, Géraldine Ungaro), Paul Devens and Cedrik Fermont
- Technical support: Frankable, Joep Hinssen, Dennis Muñoz Espandiña
- Supported by: Mondriaan Fund and Stichting Stokroos
With contributions by
Anne Wellmer (DE/NL), Cedrik Fermont (CG/BE/DE), Christian Galarreta (PE/FR), Cilia Erens (NL), Elise ‘t Hart (NL), Elsa M’Bala (CM/DE), Eran Sachs (IL), Erdem Helvacıoğlu (TR/US), France Jobin (CA), Jett Ilagan (PH), Justin Bennett (GB/NL), Kamran Sadeghi (IR/US), Leonie Roessler (DE/NL/US), Lloyd Dunn (CZ/UK), Mike Kramer (NL), Raul Keller (EE), Robert Curgenven (AU/IE), Simon Weins (DE/GB), Stelios Manousakis (GR/NL), Soheil Soheili (IR), Zeno van den Broek (NL/DK)