Swiss installation artist Zimoun has unveiled a new site-specific installation based on 150 prepared dc-motors, 270kg wood, 210m string wire and hosted inside a beautiful old church in Klangraum Krems, Austria.
Over a simple mechanical system the wooden laths are set in motion and randomly falling back to the floor. Each of the 150 elements are based on the same materials, but each of them is behaving and sounding individually. The sum of all those individual systems is generating rich textures in sound and motion, while the architecture of the church is reflecting and amplifying all the tiny sounds all over the space.
Exhibited widely in Europe, Zimoun is best known for his construction of sonic sculptures, or ‘architecturally-minded platforms of sound’. Recently interviewed by Space magazine in Korea, Zimoun explained his thinking on installation art as follows: “What I call ‘sound architecture’ signifies a space of entrance, but also a sound composition that functions more like an organism, something that is not changing into something else over time, but rather is full of variations in its details, and potent in its sonic possibilities. It’s not about a beginning or end; it could even be endless. It’s not narrative. It’s not going somewhere, and not coming from anywhere – even if it is continuously changing in its microstructures. It is more about creating a situation and focusing on the vibrations happening at the current moment. It’s about creating a simple system, which then gains dynamism, becoming richer in its behavior. So in that sense, time is informing these ‘sonic architectures’ in a very different way than that of conventional musical composition.”
The installation will be on show until July 26, 2015.
all images and video courtesy of Zimoun