VINYL STOCK SALE
thestockexchange
bouwmeesterstraat 3, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
From 07/06/2017 to 07/06/2017
Collaboration with Peter Lemmens.
Peter Lemmens:
"In a previous work called Music for a library (sounds to read by) a sound installation was placed in a library. As for some people music while reading is a prerequisite, for others it makes it impossible to focus on a text. In this example the books could be read as a score, redefining the sounds, functioning as liner notes, rhythm, lyrics or vice versa the music acting as a soundtrack or an annotated version of the books and the library.
So how to address what is going on here? In a simple description we see a storage space that is setup as a stage or as bleachers for a sound work. By stacking the crates a podium is made for the audio, a sitting space for an audience as well as a performing space for anyone who wants to put on a vinyl record. The construction becomes a makeshift sculpture for approaching the audio work and at the same time editing it with three factors:
1. It is unintentionally performed by random people
2. It is listened to in erratic sequences
3. It is inserted into an inadequate space and setting
Listening to an audio work is here at the same time performing it for an audience. In a very direct and minimal way, the handling of the record by the audience becomes a DJ set in it’s most primitive form. It's choosing and sharing with an audience something you want to hear for yourself, although in a careless and unpredictable manner.
Five vinyl records are available. This is difficult for listeners. Works can be skipped, parts can be played, succeeded by parts from other works, mingling contingent sets of content, without respecting sequences such as an A- or B-side, sidestepping intentions of the artworks. It’s sacrificing the sovereign autonomy and authority of the artwork to a certain layering and juxtaposing, never resolving into a full work or claiming a completeness. The works are fragmented into a set of impromptu trailers for works that interrupt, divert and cross-talk.
This is probably inherent to what the stock space is. A messy, imperfect location failing to present or represent the artwork. Every unpacking of a work is a diversion to what else is in the stock, what to unpack next, what to do next.
But somehow, despite this falling short and interference, it’s an unsound method that still sounds like a plan."