3 and 7 – 17 September 2011
Preview and The Showroom Ensemble performance: 3 September, 7–8pm
Performances:
The Showroom Ensemble: 7 and 14 September, 3pm
The Challenge Ensemble: 11 September, 1.30pm
Opening hours (7 – 17 September): Wednesday – Saturday, 12–6pm
New York-based artists Ei Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin, and Tbilisi-based artist Gela Patashuri collaborate on a human-size ‘speaker’ structure in The Showroom’s exhibition space. This ‘sound room’ functions both as a loudspeaker and a music studio, housing objects and materials ready for ensembles to play a specific score. The ensembles comprise of Showroom staff and members of the gallery’s local community, performing on 3, 7, 11 and 14 September 2011.
Be a speaker. So be it... evolves out of work that the artists have been doing towards the establishment of a new contemporary art centre in Tbilisi. Plans for this are so far imaginary, inspiring the artists to devise a music festival in 2009 and develop the project Hurt Locker Instruments at Casco, Utrecht, in 2010, as part of the project Circular Facts. The installation at The Showroom incorporates 3D drawings and a slide show of plans for the Tbilisi Center for Contemporary Art, both based on a drawing by Gela Patashuri.
Be a speaker. So be it... is supported by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Japan Foundation, and has been commissioned in the framework of Circular Facts.
The project is touring to France, to Betonsalon in Paris and CAC Bretigny.
More:
BBC audio interview with Ei Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin about the project
Arakawa, born in 1977 in Japan, Tcherepnin in 1981 in the USA, and Patashuri in Georgia in 1973, have been working collaboratively since 2008 on projects at Casco, Utrecht (2010), New Jerseyy, Basel (2009) and in Tbilisi (2008, 2009).
MoreEi Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin, and Tbilisi-based artist Gela Patashuri collaborated on this project to create a human-size speaker-cum-music studio.
More
Ei Arakawa, Sergei Tcherepnin and Gela Patashuri, Be a speaker. So be it..., 2011, ensemble performance. Photo: Daniel Brooke. © Ei Arakawa, Sergei Tcherepnin and Gela Patashuri. Courtesy the artists.
Ei Arakawa, Sergei Tcherepnin and Gela Patashuri, Be a speaker. So be it..., 2011, ensemble performance. Photo: Daniel Brooke. © Ei Arakawa, Sergei Tcherepnin and Gela Patashuri. Courtesy the artists.
Ei Arakawa, Sergei Tcherepnin and Gela Patashuri, Be a speaker. So be it..., 2011, ensemble performance. Photo: Daniel Brooke. © Ei Arakawa, Sergei Tcherepnin and Gela Patashuri. Courtesy the artists.
