Press Release SOUND BODY SPACE
PEAC Museum Freiburg
SOUND BODY SPACE
Friday, 17 November to Sunday, 17 December 2023
Opening: 17 November 2023, 7 p.m.
A museum without objects—a space for experiencing art beyond the visual. For one month from 17 November 2023, PEAC Museum will present two artistic projects focusing on sound and the body as part of the experimental programme SOUND BODY SPACE. French sound artist Dominique Petitgand will create an expansive work whose fragmented, abstract sounds will spread throughout the entire museum. Theater Freiburg’s School of Life and Dance is developing a piece that invites visitors to explore the space with their own bodies. SOUND BODY SPACE thus opens up new perspectives on the relationship between space, artwork and audience, which is characteristic of the works in the Paul Ege Art Collection. Both projects are being developed independently of each other and will be presented alternately.
Sound and the body within the empty museum galleries
The two SOUND BODY SPACE projects dispense entirely with material exhibits, concentrating instead on the ephemeral art forms of sound and dance. The focus is on the encounter with the museum space and the visitors’ experiences. On the one hand, SOUND BODY SPACE takes up PEAC Museum’s collection focus on Minimal Art, which questions the relationship between viewer, work, and surrounding space: rather than being mounted on canvas or raised on a plinth, the sculptural works relate to the entire surrounding space, reveal their materiality without illusionism, and introduce time as a dimension of perception. On the other hand, SOUND BODY SPACE also provides an opportunity to question the supposed neutrality of space, to trace modes of action, and to develop a personal relationship to the exhibition space. Both the sound installation by Dominique Petitgand and the performative tour by the School of Life and Dance evolve over time, affected by the movement of visitors in the space. Through their use of the materials “body” and “sound”, the two independent, site-specific works that emerge render the visitors an active part of the art.
School of Life and Dance—„Wallungen“
The School of Life and Dance is an open dance collective at Theater Freiburg under the direction of choreographers Graham Smith and Maria Pires. In intergenerational ensembles, they explore body awareness through contemporary dance forms. „Wallungen“ (German for “flushes”), developed by Lisa Klingelhöfer, Caroline Knapp, Anne Schiffers and Graham Smith, is a performative tour through PEAC Museum’s exhibition spaces. Tracking traces and lines of sight, the dancers focus on the transformation of perception through time and space.
The performances will take place on Saturday, 25 November, 2023 and Saturday, 2 December, 2023 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Dominique Petitgand—„Le poumon et les nerfs“
Dominique Petitgand works with an inventory of recorded voices, silences, noises, and music, which he weaves into soundscapes by means of montage and editing. His sound works construct and deconstruct memories and associations in equal measure, and thus occupy a space between reality and fiction. The work “Le poumon et les nerfs” (Engl. “Lung and Nerves”), produced especially for PEAC Museum, focuses on physical experience—both of the artist in the working process as well as of the visitors while listening—transforming the soundscape itself into a living organism.
The sound installation will be open Tuesday through Friday and on Sunday during regular opening hours from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
PEAC Museum
PEAC Museum is a center for modern and contemporary art. The point of departure for the multi-faceted program is the eponymous Paul Ege Art Collection (PEAC) with its focus on Minimal Art, Radical Painting and conceptual approaches that began in the 1970s. The collection comprises around 1100 works, focusing on art in which the relationship between the work, the viewer and the space is central. The curatorial team is dedicated to exploring the connections between established historical positions and young, international contemporary artists in a series of regularly changing exhibitions. Since 2004, this cross-generational dialogue has been presented in PEAC Museum’s 900 square meters of exhibition space. The exhibitions, events and educational formats are generally free of charge and open to the public.
Contact
PEAC Museum
Robert-Bunsen-Str. 5
79108 Freiburg i. Br.
Tel. +49 (0)761–5106 606
Instagram @peac.digital
Opening hours
Tuesday to Friday from 11 a.m.—5 p.m., Sundays and holidays from 11 a.m.—5 p.m. Admission is free of charge.