Please Listen to my Demo
Nunca vas a comprender
A Chamada
An old dance floor offers space for three bodies. Traces of past movements can be seen on the floor, while the bodies are standing in stillness. They are made of iron, copper and glass. The three sculptures are idiophones, playable percussive instruments whose bodies themselves generate the sound when they are set in vibration. Idiophones illustrate how closely the production of ephemeral sounds is coupled to solid materiality. Ephemerality is always connected to solidity. Thus, the forms of the three sculptures trace the medium of movement and sound on different sensory levels. Visible, audible and tactile elements synthesize in ‘Please Listen to my Demo’, ‘Nunca vas a comprender’ and ‘A Chamada’, reminding us how closely coupled individual senses of perception operate, that are often separated from each other.
Nina Emge based her work on research into the formation of a classical musical canon, which is closely connected to different mechanisms of exclusion. Here, too, the question arises of the relationship between fleeting movement and solid form, that is, the archiving and repetition of sounds and musical traditions. This usually takes place through notation and preservation in compositions. Diasporic musical traditions and collective musical practices that are not fixed by composition thus often go unheard or forgotten. Another way to give voice to the ephemerality of sound and vibration is through the instrument itself and the way sound-emitting bodies are constructed.
Nina Emges’ sculptures propose the extension of a musical canon through other ways of remembering sounds. In this context, the percussive sound-emitting body does not merely serve as an instrument for the repetition of fixed, canonized music: the three percussive bodies are tools that can be reinterpreted by the players at the moment of sound production. An extension of the canon through idiophones offers a space to long forgotten, quiet or unimagined forms of playing and listening.
as part of Protozone12: Syncretic Sites
Nina Emge (*1995, currently in Zurich) reflects on the social dimensions of sound, voice, silence and practices of listening through her artistic practice. Emge’s work is centered around issues such as decentralization, shared working methods and redistribution. This is evident in her installations and drawings, which reflect her research and archival work, as well as in the production processes of her artworks. Emge is an active member of the Transnational Sound Initiative.
Emge’s works have been exhibited at institutions including Halle für Kunst in Lüneburg, Kunsthalle Zurich, Istituto Svizzero Rome, Frac Bretagne + Centre Culturelle Suisse Paris, Uferhalle Berlin, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Helmhaus Zurich, Haus Konstruktiv Zurich, and other national and international exhibitions.
Credits:
Sculpture hanging from ceiling:
Please Listen to my Demo
193 x 235 cm / Iron, Copper, Glass
Sculpture standing on floor:
Nunca vas a comprender
175 x 124 cm / Iron, Glass
Sculpture hanging on wall:
A Chamada
160 x 120 cm / Iron, Glass
Thank you Tanzhaus Zürich for the Dance Floor
