IDEA: A recording studio as a sculpture.
WHAT: Artist Xavier Veilhan has transformed the 1912 French Pavilion into a giant sound sculpture for the Venice Biennale. The building’s exterior (designed by Venetian engineer Fausto Finzi in the Giardini della Biennale) remains untouched, but Veilhan has created a faceted interior landscape of wood and fabric. Together with curators Lionel Bovier and Christian Marclay he invited musicians and artists from around the world to play in the recording studio for the duration of the Biennale. Around a hundred musicians from various countries will come to Venice to work, think and play for audiences of art lovers who are not necessarily there to hear them play. Numerous instruments enable musicians from different horizons and genres, to work on-site, either individually or collaboratively. The presence of sound technicians and an impressive guest list of musicians will ensure the possibility to experiment with sound, at the same time as encouraging unexpected collaborations.
WHY: The artist aims to enable a form of interaction that breaks away from a cultural industry which declares itself the keeper of both the ‘fringe’ and the ‘unplugged, which leads to the same old hierarchies between renowned, experimental and amateur musicians.
“I imagine an overall environment: an immersive installation that propels visitors to the world of the recording studio and that is inspired by the pioneering work of Kurt Schwitters, the Merzbau (1923-1937). Musicians from all backgrounds are invited to bring this recording studio-sculpture to life, as it becomes home to their creations during the seven months of the Biennale. The pavilion merges visual arts and music, with a nod not only to Bauhaus and the experiments of Black Mountain College but also Doug Aitken’s Station to Station.” – Xavier Veilhan
BY: Xavier Veilha
via SOLO Music Gallery
Those Who Make Waves 