Exhibition: Island Songs at Grimmuseum / Saturday, 23.04. - Sunday, 22.05.2016

Grimmuseum is pleased to present the solo exhibition “Islands Songs” by artist duo Nicolas Perret and Silvia Ploner, showing their first two common sound projects, “Nýey” and “All Depends on the Sun”. Both works are based on field recordings and cultivate a field in-between documentary, sound art and electroacoustic composition.

Evolving around the motifs of creation, colonisation and metamorphosis of a territory, “Nýey” takes the island of Surtsey at its core. Emerged off the coast of Iceland in 1963, Surtsey is closed for the public since its birth. Being the youngest member of the Westman archipelago, the island serves science as a window to the past of the older islands.

[vimeo 143485410 w=620&h=300]

Reciprocally, those older islands are studied as windows to what Surtsey might become like in the future. Following this approach of the island as a sort of “time capsule, “Nýey” investigates Surtsey’s assumed past, present and possible future with sounds drifted from recordings made on and around the islands of Bjarnarey, Elliðaey, Heimaey and Surtsey. The project started in 2013 and has since taken different shapes: a 4.1 sound installation, a radio piece and a CD release. For Grimmuseum “Nýey” was recomposed for 11-channels and unfolds over four rooms.

Originally produced by the programme/Klangkunst/of the German national radio broadcaster Deutschlandradio Kultur, with the support of the Surtsey Research Society. Published by the Belgian Label/Unfathomless/in 2015. The radio piece was awarded the first prize in the category Radioarte by the 10th Bienal Internacional de Radio (2014), granted with/Du côté des ondes/from SCAM (2013) and the Phonurgia Nova Prize/GMVL residency (2012)./Nýey/was nominated for the Prix Phonurgia Nova (2015) and the Prix Europa (2014) and got an honorable mention from Ars Acustica (2015).

http://https://youtu.be/G5wgvLESMP0

Since ancient times historical writings, scientific reports and indigenous myths relay audible sounds accompanying northern lights. Recent studies suggest that we are dealing with sounds that exist during geomagnetic storms, but most likely do not originate from the visual aurora. However, the existence of those sounds has always been a controversial issue and remains one to this day. Driven by the words of those who have encountered and/or studied aurora related sounds,/All Depends on the Sun/delves into this phenomenon with the aim to open up wider reflections on sound and listening. At Grimmuseum the piece is accompanied by a projection with English subtitles.

Originally produced by the Creative Audio Unit of the national Australian radio broadcaster ABC, for/Soundproof/(2015), with the support from the Cultural Fund of Südtirol, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Goethe-Institute Finland, the Finnish Society of Bioart (Ars Bioarctica Residency) and the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory./All depends on the Sun/was nominated for the Prix Europa (2015).