silencieux ∞ TONSPUR_élargi

Andres Bossard once sent me on a journey:
“Pay more attention to the sounds.”
I did, and still do so today — with great passion.
Georg Weckwerth

Anybody who devotes themselves to experiencing sound cannot avoid John Cage (1912-1992): sound for sound’s sake, or “…whereas I love sounds, just as they are” (J. C.).

While Cage goes a decisive step further: “The sound experience which I prefer to all others is the experience of silence.” For him, silence is absolute sound. His 1952 composition 4′33″ was a milestone and became a legend. However there is no such thing as absolute silence. Silence almost everywhere in the world, according to Cage in 1991, is now traffic.

The exhibition silencieux ∞ TONSPUR_élargi is a conceptual variation of these two cosmoses. It presents neither the one: (real) sounds. Nor is it about the other: silence.
The show is still, silent, silencieux. At the same time, however, the staging is exuberantly noisy: a roaring silence, so to speak (the title of the biography of John Cage by David Revill, published in 1992, the year of Cage’s death.

Eight artists — all masters of their craft — contribute to the composition, to the (spatial) score, to the performance (of the exhibition), which can be seen in a series with previous shows by TONSPUR Kunstverein Wien under the heading TONSPUR_expanded: Vom Klang der Kunst (2008), Der Lautsprecher (2010), Connecting Sound Etc. — Cable Works, Cable Sounds, Cables Everywhere (2014). And, between these, the major exhibition Membra Disjecta for John Cage. Wanting To Say Something About John, held to mark John Cage’s 100th birthday in 2012.

To the people of Porrentruy and guests of the city with open eyes and ears: Immerse yourselves in the fascination of sound and the soundtrack to be imagined in our exhibition silencieux ∞ TONSPUR_élargi. The great Swiss sound artist and “sound whisperer” Andres Bosshard gives you “nine o’phono’phoric greeting cards” to take with you. And the more than one hundred works by Uwe Bressnik, Sabine Groschup, Barbara Klemm, Max Neuhaus, Keith Rowe, Gerhard Rühm, Dieter Schnebel and Timm Ulrichs take care of the rest, or rather the real thing: they are the visualized sound of an unusual show. Come, listen and see for yourself. (gw)