EMΣΤ | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, welcomes the new year with the finissage of the exhibition Iannis Xenakis: Sonic Odysseys and a live work by the Berlin-based duo LABOUR.
Co-produced by ΕΜΣΤ and the Musée de la Musique – Philharmonie de Paris, the exhibition focuses on the most important and ground-breaking work of Xenakis’s visual, literary, architectural, and musical output, while illuminating his personal history by contextualising the composer in his times, and the political and cultural movements that defined him as an artist. Iannis Xenakis: Sonic Odysseys, curated by Mâkhi Xenakis, Thierry Maniguet and Katerina Gregos, is the largest exhibition dedicated to the work of Xenakis internationally to date, and includes a wealth of material from the Xenakis Family Archives, on view for the very first time.
As part of the finissage, the Berlin-based duo LABOUR (Farahnaz Hatam and Colin Hacklander) presented their participatory multidisciplinary performance work, sungazing.
sungazing is the spatio-sonic ritual by LABOUR that takes the obscure eponymous practice of sungazing as a conceptual center for the creation of a large-scale work combining computer music, acoustic instruments, visual elements and performance through stochastic processes superimposed upon one another to create environments that alternate between collective and individual addressal.
Within various environments of flux, stasis, immersion and its opposite, groups of performers move through vast physical spaces approaching, intersecting and withdrawing from the audience who are invited to freely explore the space and discover sound through new listening positions where simultaneously occurring elements throughout the building create unique listening experiences depending on one’s position. Visual and performative elements support the spatial listening environment and help guide the sonic parcour throughout the entire museum.
LABOUR’s understanding of sungazing contains elements of warning, of seduction, of danger on the one hand, and of potential discovery, attainment of knowledge and wisdom on the other hand, highlighting this tension within intense processes of self and collective realization and evoking a range of ritualized actions from the spiritual to that of civil disobedience.
sungazing premiered at Kraftwerk Berlin for the centenary celebration of Xenakis in 2022 called X100, and carries on in new site-specific iterations, drawing inspiration from ancient Zoroastrian rituals involving fire and light, in partial reference to Xenakis’ epic work at Persepolis in Iran in 1971.
For LABOUR, the pursuit of music as catalytic, as a site for internal mental and psychic transformations remains ever vital: to create new modes of thought, new conceptions of time and space, and new modalities of togetherness.
Curator: Ioli Tzanetaki
LABOUR
LABOUR is the Berlin-based duo of Farahnaz Hatam and Colin Hacklander who create works based on sound. Coming from music yet thriving in a mixture of scenes, they have presented their work all over the world, including at Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Kraftwerk, Berlin, Sharjah Biennial, Art Basel, Julia Stoschek Collection Berlin, Grand National Theatre Dakar and Berghain, Berlin. They regularly collaborate on works for theatre, performance, video and fashion; are fellows of Villa Aurora Los Angeles; have a monthly radio show on NTS; and are long-term residents of Callie’s shared sound studio in Berlin, which they helped build-up since 2018. In 2022 LABOUR curated the X100 Festival together with Berlin Atonal, which celebrated the enduring legacy of Iannis Xenakis over three nights.
CREDITS
by LABOUR (Farahnaz Hatam & Colin Hacklander)
Curator: Ioli Tzanetaki
Instrumentalists: Diana Miron (violin), Yoni Silver (bass clarinet), Nicky Kokkoli (saxophone), Christos Kladas (saxophone)
Visual design of textiles & performance: Evelyn Bencicova, Enes Güç, Zeynep Schilling
Additional performers: Arielle Esther, Andreas Yakovlev Michaelides, Christos Oikonomou and Natalie Mariko
Percussion ensemble: Babak Ahteshamipour, Eleni Adamopoulou, Vicky Adamopoulou, Eren Paydas, Thomas Venker, Giorgos Provatopolous, Stathis Psychis, Maria Psychogiou, Chara Stavrianopoulou and Eleni Theodorou
Vocal ensemble: Iovi Fragatou, Stelios Kratsas, Sophia Lili, Thodoris Neofotistos and Natasha Tsintikidi
Special thanks: Callie’s, Outer, HAU (Hebbel am Ufer), Mathilde Skiloyannis, Nikos Dimitrakakos and Thomas Venker
INFORMATION
Beginning at 11:00, the large scale sonic activations occurred at the following times, each lasting one hour:
13:00 1st cycle
16:00 2nd cycle
18:00 3rd cycle
The exhibition will be open from 11.00 to 19.00.
The performance will take place at 13.00, 16.00 and 18.00.
Free entrance to the exhibition Iannis Xenakis: Sonic Odysseys and the music performance.
