I don’t know what time it is.
A cluster of speakers hanging low to the ground. Electric cables running like brambles or veins. Two ceramic spheres, one wrapped in fabric, the other bare. Two headphones that invite us to stop on the rectangular carpet, which defines the soft limits of this unexpected territory. Layers of sound that overlap – animal or machine activity, altered human voices, distant winds and soaring musical tracks. These are the elements that gravitate around Gerome Gadient’s installation for Plattform22. The whole forms a sculptural and sonic constellation from the artist’s own electronic cosmogony. But unlike our solar system, the galaxy to be explored here has no center, so that each person is free to drift through it on their individual journey, carried by the flow of the sound piece and guided by two round, planet-shaped objects, that serve as visual compasses. The title evokes the coordinates of a fictional location, a sort of spatio-temporal mirage, like the green flash (i-mir), a visual phenomenon that is very rarely observed at sunset. The 20 minute long sound piece brings together a collage of a fragmented monologue, captured and recorded together with the artist’s friend Charlotte Horn. Written, collected, copied and modified by the artist, the story is supplemented by intimate binaural field recordings and musical compositions. Together they form a mantra about impermanence and the changing nature of everything. However, the familiar strangeness of the prevailing climate never gives way to anguish. Proof that time, which inexorably jumbles us, can also disperse like the shimmering mirage of hot air, and may finally give us the focus we have always sought.
Translation: Plattform teamI don’t know what time it is.
A cluster of speakers hanging low to the ground. Electric cables running like brambles or veins. Two ceramic spheres, one wrapped in fabric, the other bare. Two headphones that invite us to stop on the rectangular carpet, which defines the soft limits of this unexpected territory. Layers of sound that overlap – animal or machine activity, altered human voices, distant winds and soaring musical tracks. These are the elements that gravitate around Gerome Gadient’s installation for Plattform22. The whole forms a sculptural and sonic constellation from the artist’s own electronic cosmogony. But unlike our solar system, the galaxy to be explored here has no center, so that each person is free to drift through it on their individual journey, carried by the flow of the sound piece and guided by two round, planet-shaped objects, that serve as visual compasses. The title evokes the coordinates of a fictional location, a sort of spatio-temporal mirage, like the green flash (i-mir), a visual phenomenon that is very rarely observed at sunset. The 20 minute long sound piece brings together a collage of a fragmented monologue, captured and recorded together with the artist’s friend Charlotte Horn. Written, collected, copied and modified by the artist, the story is supplemented by intimate binaural field recordings and musical compositions. Together they form a mantra about impermanence and the changing nature of everything. However, the familiar strangeness of the prevailing climate never gives way to anguish. Proof that time, which inexorably jumbles us, can also disperse like the shimmering mirage of hot air, and may finally give us the focus we have always sought.
Translation: Plattform team
Sampled vocal recordings with Charlotte Horn
Photo credits: Guadalupe Ruiz