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Themesicon: navigation pathSound and Imageicon: navigation pathExterior / Interior
 
 
 
 
 

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the applause, there was also a lot of vehement booing. Printed handouts encouraged people to obstruct the premiere – which, of course, didn’t happen. But all throughout, you heard hateful whistling in the audience.

IA: Do you see exhibitions as universal artworks? You do, after all, combine sound and images, and that’s actually a similar approach…

Field Recordings

RL: I put the emphasis on sound in my exhibitions. When I refer to a concrete location, for example, I draw myself closer to it through images and tones; in the exhibition, though, this location is only greatly minimized, usually with photographs, and left on the border to perceptibility.

IA: Are there spaces that you definitely want or don’t want to set to music? What would it be like, for example, working in a huge industrial space?

RL: I prefer the White Cube environment over the industrial space. I find it more difficult to work when you recognize the history of a space – in such cases, I could never just start from zero, but would always have

 

to develop an approach within the context of the specific use of that space. Once I collaborated with a Norwegian artist on a project that involved setting a hiking trail to music. We gave people rubber goulashes, raincoats and compasses, along with a map that charted the trail and headphones. And so prepared, they were meant to walk the trail. Through the headphones, they could hear texts and music at designated spots along the route. What I found interesting was working with a location overrun with acoustic elements: chirping birds, passing cars, and planes flying overhead. I could enter all this and add more sounds to it… Question from the audience: Did you inspect the route beforehand?

RL: Yes. We walked the route several times, at different times of day, and in every type of weather. The various perspectives revealed along the way were observed and considered, as well as which stories could emerge from the hike. I also traveled the route with the laptop in front of me. I recorded the hike that way because the computer could hear a lot that I couldn’t hear. Microphones hear differently than the human ear; the frequencies present themselves

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