Dans le vide et le silence
A wooden installation, a video, a voice and a light, in collaboration with Hans Demeulenaere
For the exhibition “Sound of Silence” Festival van Vlaanderen Kortrijk, curated by Joost Fonteyne (april & may 2016)
“Sound is all our dreams of music. Noise is music’s dreams of us. And those moments when one loses control, and sound like crystals forms its own planes, and with a thrust, there is no sound, no tone, no sentiment, nothing but the significance of our first breath (…)”. – Morton Feldman
As an electronic composer and musician I have for many years been completely devoted to the creation and organisation of sound, its juxtapositions and meanings, and not so much to the ‘silence’ of the space. I placed myself in these absences and silences during the initial stage of the creation process, becoming silent and opening myself completely to my sonic, architectural and visual surroundings. This attitude towards sonic surroundings can be an intense mental process, but becoming silent and closing oneself off is something all living beings experience every night: sleep. This naturally reoccurring state is perhaps the only experience which comes close to experiencing absolute silence. Our sensations are reduced or even absent at a certain stage of sleep, our muscles relax, we drift into unconsciousness and our awareness of our surroundings disappears. In several stages of our anabolic state images, memories, emotions and sensations seem to flood into each other, an intense introspection occurs, and we lose our awareness of our external environment.
Text in the video work:
We experience architecture from an early age and we subsequently compare buildings and spaces we encounter later in life with these early architectural experiences. The emptiness and silence of a space can give us time to observe the environment more carefully. We can make observations, as well as the possibility to reflect on ourselves. This is not a place for dwelling, but a space for passage. The rhythm of our footsteps and the sounds of slamming doors stimulate our physical movement, making is more determined to reach our destination. Although I was alone in these passages, I became very conscious of the presence of different sounds, but also of their absence.
Video stills
Installation view