Brandon LaBelle | Artists in Residence | Kamov Residency

Photo: Frank Paul

• Biography
• The Project
• Organized by

• Brandon LaBelle

  → www.brandonlabelle.net/index.html

  Brandon LaBelle is an artist, writer and theorist working with questions of social life and cultural agency, using sound, performance, text and sited constructions. He develops and presents artistic projects and performances within a range of international contexts, often working in public. This leads to interventions and performative installations, archival work, and micro-actions aimed at the sphere of the (un)common and the unlikely. He is also an active lecturer working with institutions around the world addressing questions of auditory culture, sonic and spatial arts, experimental media practices and the voice. Current research projects focus on voicing and choreographies of the mouth, sonic materiality and auditory knowledge, and the aesthetics and politics of invisibility.

  His work has been presented at the South London Gallery (2016), Tel Aviv University Art Gallery (2015), Marrakech Biennial (parallel project), 2014, General Public, Berlin (2013), The Whitney Museum, NY (2012), Image Music Text, London (2011), Sonic Acts, Amsterdam (2010), A/V Festival, Newcastle (2008, 2010), Tramway, Glasgow (2010), Museums Quartier/Tonspur, Vienna (2009), 7th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Allegro (2009), Center for Cultural Decontamination, Belgrade (2009), Casa Vecina, Mexico City (2008), Fear of the Known, Cape Town (2008), Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam (2003, 2007), Ybakatu Gallery, Curitiba, Brazil (2003, 2006, 2009), Singuhr Gallery, Berlin (2004), and ICC, Tokyo (2000).

  Also a prolific writer, he is the author of Lexicon of the Mouth: Poetics and Politics of Voice and the Oral Imaginary (2014),Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian (2012), Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life (2010), and Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art (2015; 2006). Through his work with Errant Bodies Press he has co-edited the anthologies Site of Sound: Of Architecture and the Ear Volumes 1 & 2 (1999, 2011), Writing Aloud: The Sonics of Language (2001), Surface Tension: Problematics of Site (2003) and Radio Territories (2007), along with a series of monographs (Critical Ear series) on sound and media artists.

  He has various audio releases on international experimental music labels, and regularly produces works for radio, notably for Kunstradio in Vienna (1999, 2001, 2007, 2009) and Deutschland Radio (2009). He received a Masters degree from Cal Arts, Los Angeles in 1998, and completed his PhD at the London Consortium in 2005. Following his doctoral work he undertook post-doctoral research at the University of Copenhagen from 2006 to 2009, in Modern Culture and Sound Studies. In 2008-09 he worked as Guest Professor at the Copenhagen Art Academy and at the Free University in Berlin, holding seminars on acoustic territories, spatial practice and the male voice. He lives in Berlin and is Professor at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Norway.

• Rijeka: Silent Collocutors

  23.10.-06.11.2016.

  Rijeka: Silent Collocutors, 31 October 2016

  • a workshop in city exploration, Rijeka’s city center and the location of former Benčić factory, 16:00 – 20:00
  • workshop mentors: Anamarija Batista and Brandon Labelle, http://www.brandonlabelle.net/projects.html

  Noć [The Night], a chapter in the book Mali Urbanizam [Little Urbanism] by Bogdan Bogdanović, begins with a mention of Gérard de Nerval’s October Nights. The excerpt that Bogdanović speaks of is based on the writer’s personal experience of Paris at night. Waiting for the post wagon to take him to the other side of Paris, de Nerval wanders along the city’s periphery, from café to café, discovering a small world, completely unknown to him, and exploring its subterranean landscapes. Proceeding from de Nerval’s projection of night, Bogdanović believes that cities should truly be seen and envisaged in two projections – one in daylight, and the other at night, because at night man not only sees better, but he also tends to enhance and expand the picture, unleashing his own imagination. He comes to the conclusion that man’s experience of a city is much deeper, more permanent and more subjective in this other, night (…), projection.

  In accordance with Bogdanović’s writings, we would like to reflect on the night projection of Rijeka, placing the focus on the life of sounds in this city. On 31 October 2016, at 16:00, we will meet at the Kamov residence, and begin this workshop with the lectures of Brandon LaBelle and Anamarija Batista. The multimedia artist Brandon Labelle is going to discover a connection between the world of night, with its many forms and sceneries, and the life of communities “invisible” during the day, communities that, taking night as the time and place of action, enrich the city with its whispers and sounds.  The curator Anamarija Batista is going to reflect on sound figures of a bedroom, which at daytime appears as an uneventful space, but it grows and becomes deeper throughout the night, assuming different shapes.* We continue with our gathering at Benčić, where we meet around 18:00. We are going to explore evening sounds of the former industrial plant and the future cultural center and MMSU’s location. Working in groups, we are going to record sounds, take down notes and discuss a change in sound figures, change that comes as a result of transformations in economic and social flows. The evening will end with a gathering at the Kamov residence. 

  * We would like to do a research on What is the Sound of Rijeka’s Bedrooms? In case you are interested in taking part in this project, we would be happy if you sent us a response, in the form of reflection, a short essay, image, audio file, or any form of your choice, to this question: What is the sound of your bedroom? Bedroom, as the place of dreaming, listening, intensification; a place of getting together. Please send your observations, with information referring to the street in which your flat is located, position of your bedroom, your profession, age and sex, to the following e-mail address: Turn on JavaScript!.  

  Since the number of participants is limited (15 participant max.), please confirm your participation by 21 October, by sending an e-mail to Turn on JavaScript!. The workshop will be held in Croatian and English.

  Rijeka: Silent Collocutors is a continuation of Copula – series of art interventions in public space, a program that began in 2013.  https://spajalicacopula.wordpress.com/

  Support: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the Austrian Cultural Forum 

• Museum of modern and contemporary art

  → www.mmsu.hr

  Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (HR) - MMSU

   

  MMSU in Rijeka founded in 1948, in its long tradition offers a committed support to innovative ways of approaching, producing and presenting art. From its very beginning the Museum has been building reputation of one of the most prominent visual art institutions in Croatia, entrusted with presentation of Croatian artists at prestigious international art events such as: Venice Biennial 1962, 1997, 2007, 2010, Sao Paolo Biennial 1967, 2004 etc. 

  The Museum rounds its programming around visual art education, parallel to different modes of exhibition concepts that address new discursive possibilities and transform it into a place of inspiration, idea exchange and active participation. Under the motto openness, creativity & engagement, together with artistic, cultural and community organizations, Museum furthers visual arts research, collaboration and exchange within the region and internationally, while aspiring to reach increasingly diverse audiences and to work in a close relationship with the community.

  Museum’s collection offers a diverse range of artistic visions with over 8,000 artworks dated from the end of the 19^th century to the present day. From 2017 Museum is located at new address, Krešimirova 26c, in ex-industrial complex Rikard Benčić. Since then, some important exhibitions were organized at MMSU in the framework of the pre-program and program of Rijeka 2020 - European Capital of Culture, i.e. Tomislav Gotovac: Crisis Anticipator - Don't Ask Where We're Going (2017), Vlado Martek: Exhibition with Many Titles and Goran Petercol: Don't Worry About Poetics, They Will Arrive on Their Own in 2019 and David Maljković: With the Collection in 2020..