Sound

LIVING IN THE BEGINNING OF TIMES 50.660940, 14.007270 / 12.19

This installation, entitled Living in the beginning of times 50.660940, 14.007270 / 12.19, referencing an a project by the same name, consists of three works: The remain of the traces of an unmentionable time, PostIsotype and Photogeny of a contextualization for a new revolution respectively. Here, the subtitle “50.660940, 14.007270 / 12.19” refers to the longitude and latitude of the space, Galerie Emila Filly in Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic, where the work was exhibited, followed by the month and year. Together the three works make up a single piece and was exhibited in a new site-specific context as part of a group exhibition curated by Tereza Záchová, entitled "The Earth - Current way of living”. The exhibition makes palpable for the viewer the socio-environmental crisis we all currently face and addresses locally the landscape that is boundlessly connected to Ústí nad Labem. In “The Earth”, the artworks explored basic issues that influence environmental change and the impact on humanity and our planet.

Foto: Jirka Dvořák

More about the show HERE
Download booklet HERE

Insubordination of bodies

In the heat of critical discussions on labor, value and alienation, Paul Lafargue denounced the repressive imperative of work, the all-invading and foundational basis for modern capitalist economies. He manifestes the necessity of establishing the right to laziness, situating this right outside of capitalist exploitation and apparatus of discipline: “to work but three hours a day, reserving the rest of the day and night for leisure and feasting”[1]. Among many other critical trajectories including the anarchist joy of refusing to work, supposedly Eastern-European idleness and non-productivity, critiques of over-production and reproductive labor have become part of a strong tradition of the abolition of work in political and artistic practices. (excerpt from the text by Aleksei Borisionok)
for full text read here
exhibited at HotDock Project Space, Bratislava, november 2018
photo: Andrea Junekova, SaeJin Choi, Oscar de Carmen

Living in the beginning of times 59.923885, 10.758991 / 10.17

The exhibition, at RAM galleri, is a free continuation of the eponymous project
Living in the Beginning of times, shown earlier this year at Greenlightsdistrict National Art Festival in Skien.
The Subtitle 59.923885,10.758991 / 10.17 refers to the longitude, latitude, and time of exhibition, drawing viewers attention to concentrate on a future even taking place one hundred years later and question whether this site will be in ruins or remain thriving… Only the future will tell.
Text by Liv Brissach HERE
Ram Galleri, Oslo, 2017
photo: Jan Khür

Sound Archeology

Re–imagining the past, this installation raises critical questions about human activity on Earth, and the possible future scenarios this might lead to. Using soviet sourced electronic materials, and sound elements, an analogue audio system from soviet time and a vinyl record and soil on which a bunch of local weeds thrive, this small–scale presentation portrays a temporal shift to a time in the near future from which the age of corporate exploitation of natural elements, capitalist consumption within economic anthropology and the infrastructure of civilisation is in ruins and looked back at with shame.
As the dusty/scratched Soviet hymn vinyl record being played, the dust settles into the grooves crumbling, ruinous place – deteriorated in size – reference the ominous effects of this age. The holes are made pertinent to the site of the installation – champagne factory – as well as decadent place, these decaying replicas. This, which directly ties the installation to its exhibition site and the region’s corporate production, makes the retro–futuristic scenario all the more effective since only the temporal, not the spatial is made to shift.
The long–term effects of the industrial revolution, from which modern capitalism and corporate dominance arose can be seen as a backdrop to this sinister forecast. The installation poses the practical problem arising from the conceptual meaning of the theory of the substantivists, which defines economics as an aspect of everything that society provides, but nothing that defines society as economic.
Supplementing the apocalyptic prognosis, the project also provides creative proposals for a possible future that can arise from the ruins of our past.
The project was commissioned by 5th Odessa Biennale "Turbulance Area". more HERE
The project was supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council.

Living in the beginning of times

In this installation, the artists have responded to the notion of existing between two revolutions: the end of the industrial revolution – which defined and re-defined the relations between human production, nature and capitalism – and the first steps of the techno-scientific revolution – the anticipated way forward to minimise and reduce the negative human impact on Earth. From this place in-between, the unpredictability of what is to come is equally a source of frustration as it is a productive place from which to imagine possible futures. (from the text by Liv Brissach)
the exhibition is part of Greenlight District Festival which is arranged by Skiens Kunstforening, Kunsthall Grenland, Spriten Kunsthall and Telemark Kunstsenter. The arranging institutions have chosen a common concept for the festival: A district in transformation, where post-industrial projects spring up next to both traditional and new industry, technology and an increasingly strong focus on ecological problems.
more about the festival and participating artists HERE
The project was realised with a generous support of Art Council Norway, Norcem and Spanish Embassy in Oslo.

Ya-mae

Ya-mae / 야매 is a site/context specific work that rises as a metaphor from the similarities between the DIY technical reparations within in the gallery room, with the tendencies in actual politics in the European Union, USA and Asia Pacific that caused the consequences for economic stability of the current global macro economy.
The reproductions of images from the gallery are combined with sounds from youtube videos marking crucial moments in world politics.
exhibited at Fotogalleriet in Oslo, 2017
photo: Istvan Virag

afterlife

Afterlife, proof of life after death and other related critical concepts, such as the purpose of life and reincarnation of overproduction of food from supermarkets. The project offers the possibility to use expired food in energy production. As part of our process, we developed a pilot project where we observed that fruits and vegetables produce small amounts of electricity through an electrochemical reaction. This was achieved by inserting two different types of metal, copper and zinc, in each of the fruits in the installation. These fruits produce small amounts of electricity when they are connected in series and operate a small screen. From this moment our focus was aimed at finding ways of putting conservation of energy into practice; this is first law of thermodynamics, which states that energy can not be created or destroyed, only transferred from one form to another. Thus, our installation is also a way to visualize an analogue synthesis, where energy is transferred from fruit and vegetables to small plasma screen, creating a symbiosis. The installation is conceived as a social critique of the existing consumer society and a proposal for an alternative and further use of fruit and vegetables, which are regarded as superfluous and unsellable by supermarket chains.

Exhibited at Carl Berner Projektrom in december 2015.

photo: Yamile Calderon

Superfluous Identity IV

SUPERFLUOUS IDENTITY IV exhibited at Babel is part of a series of site-specific installations with the same title that examine the effects of the capitalist system and its impact on the individual. As a monstrous organism the installation unfolds throughout the rooms of Babel. Sound, objects and visual elements intertwine to encapsulate the viewer into this strange, superfluous identity with “pictographed” heartbeats via the cardiogram-like black tape stripes at the floor and the filtered soundscape. photo: Hanna Fauske, Andrea Lykken Kittilsen.

superfluous identity III

The current dominant economic model has, particularly in the last decade, has proved to be a heavy-footed, exhausted juggernaut... former strength and stability, but also decay and disintegration of something that is trying to sustain in its last race.

curated by zuzana jakalova

photo: martin brazina

http://entrancegallery.com/

superfluous identity II

site-specific sound installation closely related to the Koh I Noor factory and its context over century of life. 5 black metal sheets, each of them with own transducer installed on the back side projecting the sound of 3 national anthems ( austrio-hungarian, checo-slovak and Czech) marking in this way the period of time of the factory.

SUPERFLUOUS IDENTITY I

We take the Double Portrait of Hans Burgkmair with his wife Anna from Renaissance painter Lucas Furtenagela as the starting point for consideration of the work. The project is based on the theme memento mori that its impact in this work expanded from particular individuals, as seen on the image of the 16th century, the entire human community. The individual is closely linked with preset systems of the society in which he lives. Personification of the problem is hardly possible (although we report in prime time trying to prove otherwise). For an initial understanding of the problem, it must be seen in general. The work is a memento mori of the current economic model. As in our previous works, this will reflect the mood in society, politics and economics; a means of expression treated at a symbolic level. Immaterial nature of our work is related to liberating approach to creating work. It arises very often for the site and on site with recurrent sound.

The first part of the project was exhibited at Galerie Klubovna in Brno, Czech Republic in march 2015.

pictures by Marta Fišerová & Marcin Cwiklinski

spanish (r)evolution

The video installation "spanish (r)evolution" shows how the roots of the participation of Spanish society to the disagreement of the established power system derives historically from the popular festivities in Spain; where libertarian and creative side emerged within them was the only legal form of public protest.

The aim of the piece is to generate an audible narrative that emulates the sound of a demonstration by thousands of citizens trough the sound from multiple simultaneous videos from various Spanish popular festivities.

The video was first shown as part of group exhibition Biopolitics of south side curated by Aristides Santana at Junefirst Gallery in Berlin, 2014 and later in form of installation as part of NEWROPE exhibition in Nitrianska Galeria curated Omar Mirza.

PDP/AV1

PDP/AV1 project has been focused on investigating the possibility of viewing organic battery power through plasma screens and synthesizers. The installation, shows the research process started 4 years ago to offer the possibility of using expired food in energy production and its a direct continuation of the previous stage AV1/AV2.

The project has been produced with generous support of Art Council Norway and Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond and exhibited in Atelier Nord ANX, Galleri Blunk and Høstutstillingen 2014.

Yes, I can (not)

The creation of the work "Yes, I can (not)" is generated by two unilateral perspectives on power politics in the global financial system. The first perspective deals on a personal level with the institutional relationship to the social talk, in a context that defines the identity of artists compared with the curator, the gallerist and academic institution. The second perspective examines the political dialogue issued for public comment in relation to the global monetary system as the crisis facing what are the consequences on the lives of workers.

The installation is presented as a space of dialogue between questionable dictation: microphones in the gallery are positioned in representative form of nesting of the power through the alteration of the functionality of the microphones on tripods. The microphones are used as speakers and spreading an audio recording of a voice pronouncing the verb of the power in affirmative and negative forms in all persons singular and plural, omitting only the first person singular. The tripods for sustaining the microphones are positioned 2 meters and 25 cm high respectively facing the viewer.

Sound installation; variable dimensions; microphones, tripods

Yes, I can (not), presented in two gallery spaces: KHM Gallery and Skånes konstförening in Malmö in september 2014.

Post-Market Economy, The sound of capitalism

Prague November 17, 1989, the new country's leaders began the process of democratization by introducing a market economy and return to Europe. Companies of Western European bloc and other American competing in the sale of new home accessories, their ultimate goal; selling appliances.

The sound installation works with the intensity of perception of sounds from various obsolete appliances incapable of being perceived by the human ear; through a systematic increase vibrational sound energy emitted by sources through incorporating multiple piezos.

Sound installation: 3 washers, 1 refrigerator, 2 TVs, 1 sound sistem, 1O piezos.

LEGIONELLOSIS

In the realization of Martinka Bobrikov and Oscar de Carmen for space INI appears the a specific context of space, defined by, among others, functionalist huge window behind him bizarrely placed ventilation system where the authors have used to accentuate the audio and visual aspects of the "genius loci" . These for them at the same time became the basis for metonymic linking with EEA air conditioning as frequent carriers of infection such as " Legionnaires' disease" . This association between hypertrophied air conditioning systems and diseases resulting from it often is only hidden meaning generator leading to infections that are transmitted to the audience by the authors. Its acoustic attack based on homogenized acoustic signal, is perhaps transformed into a springing the sound of toxic waste. This unlike the parable, the strange metonymy which the authors offer us here, certainly might result in a rather aesthetic impact.  However, the " infectious " threat, in a harmless form of acoustic waves in this environment where we breathe through a closed system an already eighty years old conditioning, induces “weird” feelings...

The exhibition was part Je ne travaille jamais project curated by Viktor Čech at INI Prostor in  March 2014, Prague.

In Process

A museum or arts centre collection is the backbone of the institution - apart from the planning and the programming. Within it is the museological plan which dictates the works´ procurement policies, aimed at building a culturally valuable and coherent collection. To which, in the case of public institutions, social responsibility is added, meaning, as well as its coherence and cultural value, that the collection should have a social value within its environment.

This approach leads us to study and question the arts centre/museum collection as a starting point to probe not only its statements, but also the intrahistoria of the institution, as well as its value to society as a whole.

Martinka Bobrikova and Oscar de Carmen are two artists who within their particular exhibition project present works belonging to the TEA Collection as an engine to challenge today´s museum concept, its functions and its operations. Testing, in turn, the different museographic models in the reception and exhibition of artistic works, as well as the production processes integrating external collaborators.

In Process doesn´t only feature the work and opinion of just those artists with works in the centre´s collection – as creators or political subjects – it also amplifies the visual and semantic potential of the exhibition, developing different collaborative networks between people, space and media.

It features contributions from a variety of cultural agencies that are participating with performances, including contemporary musicians, singers, cultural associations and performing arts technical experts.

The result of this pooling of multiple contributions is what constitutes the current exhibition, presenting a different institutional model, more concerned with the consolidation of local framework and creation of new cultural fabric. Perhaps a more sustainable operating model.

Foto: Teresa Arozena

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Kitchen Dialogues

a series of environmental actions in the kitchen

This project aims to change consumer sensory intellectual concept of overproduction of food from supermarkets. In this occasion we will present food series of environmental actions in the kitchen around the theme of food surplus. We are interested in investigating the social changes among the common home environment meeting place called domestic kitchen and the meeting around the industrial kitchen in relation to the consumption of food surplus.

This private kitchen is a hybrid between being a guest in a dinner party and a restaurant. The shared experience of a set menu gives people common ground, and naturally the novelty factor is a conversation starter - it struck me as a comfortable cross between site specific theatre where you are not exactly sure what is going to happen, and a nice home party.

The private restaurant was located in Trondheim as a part of the exhibition CONSTANT. DEACY. organized by Rake visningrum. Private restaurant/ home setting was build by Heim og land arkitekter and took place in Elgesetergate 30b between 5th October and 31th October 2013. Elgesetergate 30b is an old abandoned apartment building which is now going to be demolished.

Kitchen Dialogues is an ongoing nomad project. go to the blog HERE

OLD FIRM

This installation aims to bring citizens closer to the no division in the social mass, with reference to the existing confrontation between Glasgow football teams of rangers and celtic football club, where there is great division between the groups in religion, politics and social economy .

The installation has the title of Old Firm that is the name that is given when the two teams meet in the Premiership (currently can not be because one is in first division and another in secondary).

The piece has 2 monitors, 2 speakers and an antenna at the extremity with 2 coins which together at the same time alternates the signal.

The piece was shown as part of the group exhibition ALWAYS ON THE MOVE in Fleming House Underground Car Park, Glasgow.

More info: www.glasmo.co.uk/

The Protester

This sound documentation presents an urban intervention, which took place in Malmö on the 29th of March, 2012, between 12pm -2pm.

Through a powerful sound system installed in a danish van used for demonstration in Copenhagen, we drove through the city projecting the sound of a crowd. “The Protest” started in Möllevångstorget and proceeded towards Triangeln, Föreningsgatan, Amiralsgatan and then surrounded the old town with 2 breaks at Stortorget and Gustav Adolfs Torg with a final stop in Triangeln.

The installation presents 8 sound tracks of documentation recorded during the event. The first 5 tracks, in chronological order, were recorded during the first 20 minutes of walking from Möllevångstorget to Triangeln. The next 3 tracks refer to the part between the breaks at Stortorget and Gustav Adolfs Torg.

Urban Hunter

I am a gleaner, a poacher, or a treasure hunter … for others I feed on the city’s carrion.

I have determined the representation of my work in connection with the context in which it is shown, within the framework of the institutional territory of contemporary art. I act as though I were a collector for the meeting with the museum space; I adopt a fictitious objectivity mode in my supplanting of the subject. Helped by historical perspective, I build a collection based on copies of works of art on the theme of hunting, which acts through reappropriation of the terms of reference. In this way I produce an action that hides the information about my work and myself as the subject, and I acquire an inter-subjective quality, another connotative power, endowed with a false identity.

The masterpieces I have chosen are The Gleaners by Jean-François Millet, Basket of Fruit by Caravaggio, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber.

Through audio guides I link descriptive narrations of my ventures as a “scavenger” to the copies of the works of art. The narration is produced parallely in two languages, Spanish and Slovak with english translation over it.

This project is sponsored by DATATON

Utopic topic

Utopic topic, is a context specific performance, whose purpose is to create through disinhibition, the interruption of the automated human behavior in private spaces encouraged to binge. In this context, the experience of disinhibition we carried Contemplating, perceives the confrontation as a tool for compulsive consumption through aesthetic experience. In this way we create new sensory experiences in private spaces, which appear as public spaces, to attract the families to shop in comfort.

Ikea Malmö, december 2011.

RAINFOREST IV

“It occurred to me that one should reverse the application of loudspeakers so that they would not merely reproduce sound but actually produce sound. The idea is based on taking any number of fixed materials and transmitting sound through them; through their resonance frequencies they become a new instrument”, wrote Tudor.

This is newly interpreted work under the direction of Canadian composer, sound artist and Tudor specialist Matt Rogalsky,  of American musician and composer David Tudor,  which was created in 1973.

Found, converted or self-made objects are arranged freely around the room. Transducers on the objects cause the items to emit sounds. Resulting is an abundant, accessible “rainforest” of sounds.

partecipating artists: Martinka Bobrikova, Oscar de Carmen, Seth Davis, Cecilia Jonsson, Joonas Siren,  Lauri Wuolio, Flopper (Christian Mastrup), Signe Lidén, Jonas Olsen and Thomas Wochnik

exhibited at Singuhr Hoergalerie

photo copyrights: singuhr / roman märz 2011

ECHOES 0.0

The presented installation is been made for a tiled room, a space that is normally considered inappropriate for any type of sound pieces. This is why I am interested in the re- appropriation of sounds considered "echoes” for how they are perceived, intelligible and identifiable. These sounds are sharp, hollow, and repetitive. By that I want to promote the resonance of the frequencies. What I want is to redistribute the resonance through the absorption, diffusion and isolation; in the way that spectator can get different experience depending from his position in the room.

you have to go right now!

In this work the intention is not to create an object to observe, but to involve the public in an action that may be remembered. This opens a new stage in our production, with more social character in our personal work.

The work's title refers to a conversation between the artists and the manager of a supermarket, after they collected of food products found in the waste container of his company. These are mechanisms that construct and define the way of looking and acting of these two artists in their most recent work, after facing the illegality, the intrusion into private space and the threat of being arrested by authorities.

This work represent 2 different stories ( one audio and one video) that belongs to the same physical place but different time.