SONGS OF SPACES a score of a journey

ZUzana Ernst Songs of Space a score of a journey

ZUzana Ernst Songs of Space a score of a journey

June 12 through July 1, 2012 Semperdepot, Atelierhaus of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Performed “real-time� music never exists as a whole at any given moment, but rather unfolds in a linear manner over time and joints to an entity only in retrospect in the memory of the listener or performer.

(Galia Hanoch-Roe)

va y viene

salar

trazos

pasadizo

Songs of Space a score of a journey

Architecture and music have been traditionally classified as spatial and temporal art accordingly. This work is questioning this categorization and tries to explore the similarities and possible overlap of the composition and experience of music and space. In both cases, a score is used to document process. Although the term score is commonly used for music, in this work I am broadening its meaning, enclosing all human pursuits that process consists of. A score or notation is a symbol system mediating, leading and controlling interactions and elements. These elements are time, rhythm, people and their action, as well as the possible combinations of their interplay.

The physical is intuitively connected to our psychological and emotional perception.

Space is light, sound, smell, interactions between people and the movements that all these elements evoke. Space, as well as music, is directly connected to time. We experience space in three stages: our conception and reception before entering, the actual experience within and finally, the memory.

This work is exploring the temporal space of a voyage, a space perceived in motion, where sound forms the main structural element. Thus, space becomes a path and the path a composition. A musical piece played after a score consisting of sounds of places experienced on a journey. These sounds set the rhythm and form the base of the spatial installations. These musical spaces are subjective and take place within the imagination of the participants. The soundscapes are related to objects, materials and textures and thus, composing a scene. While experiencing the installations, the spatial experience is comparable to the musical one.

The four music rooms – each describing a different movement - are associated with new transitory spaces. The inter-medial installations are orchestrated as a temporal parcours through the passageways of Semper Depot. The visitors pass by these rooms on their way to the gallery of the 3rd floor of the building, where the actual exhibition takes place and thus, become part of the movement. The path starts in the elevator, passes the staircase, through the foyer, into the atelier for scenography leading to the gallery. At the conclusive moment of the parcours, four films are played on screens, which are placed onto music stands, each reminding the visitors of one of the four movements.

Va y viene, c-print on archive paper, 63 cm x 200 cm

Va Y Viene

Va y viene, detail close-up

location: staircase elements: sound track (waves, wind), fans, plastic foil, projection

A movement paced by water.

There is a space which emerges through the constant back and forth of the fluid, running from the wave, who is teased to come closer.

A restless game, played by your own rules.

A rhythm, already predefined, always the same, always changing.

Movement follows sound, sound follows movement.

Back and forth, traces erased, overwritten by new ones.

Salar, c-print on archive paper, 63 cm x 200 cm

Salar

Salar, detail close-up

Endless surface, wide, leading nowhere and everywhere.

Aimless wandering in puddles, careful steps directed by the embossed landscape.

Moving in order to hear something, to embrace landscape, to modify it.

A composition of chance.

Following traces of others, erasing them, setting new ones, moving on.

location: foyer elements: sound track (salt lake, footsteps), salt, blue pigment, water containers, sifting mechanism, laminate

Trazos, c-print on archive paper, 63 cm x 200 cm

Trazos

Trazos, detail close-up

Strategy becomes choreography, a choreography of waiting.

Pause.

Waiting for better conditions.

Traces of confusion, streets submerged and blurred.

A space of interruptions, involuntarily immersed, deep, deeper even.

Stepping backward to get impulse.

To then again, pause.

Gasping and fizzling of motors.

To then again, pause.

As if glued into positions.

Thinking about the next step, examining the steps of others, stepping backward again.

location: atelier space, Semperdepot, 3rd floor elements: sound track (engines), sculpted clay reliefs, black shelfs, integrated piezzo speakers

Trazos, reliefs, unglazed clay, each 20 cm x 60cm

Pasadizo, c-print on archive paper, 63 cm x 200 cm

Pasadizo

Pasadizo, detail close-up

PaSadizo

location: passage way to gallery, Semperdepot, 3rd floor elements: sound track (latino music, cars, street noice), folding camera shell, fish eye door lense, integrated piezzo speaker, backprojection on canvas

An opening, a direction.

Forward, but not straight.

Soft curves obstructing the view.

The movement almost blind, automatic, involuntary.

Dampened and constricted, pulled.

Certainty without knowing.

One follows and is followed until the end, when paths disperse.

video still of projected sequense visible through door leanse, loop 0’28”