Blind Signal GRMN - VTNM
April 19 - 27. 2019, Hà Nội
September 20 & 21, 2019, Berlin
Blind Signal GRMN - VTNM aims to investigate the diversities and wide range of sonic practice through collaborative creations across multiple geographies.
"Sound readily locates us outside: outside of so many over-determined coordinates, spaces, relations and markets; outside the production and consumption of quantifiable matter; outside the time of an artistic reading often circulating around art world sensibilities; outside the divide of body and mind, of us and them, etc. This outside though is not an imagined utopian plane, but in fact, a destination always already intrinsic to sonic materiality, to the force of listening, between you and I _ outside as the point of departure and of arrival for the trajectory of auditory phenomena, where sound is never fully locatable from beginning to end, but moves as a primary energy collecting into particular meanings here and then there.”
Brandon Labelle, Site of Sound: Of Architecture and the Ear, Vol. 2, with Claudia Martinho (Errant Bodies Press, Berlin, 2011)
Artistic exchange is a phenomenal act that allows for the open sharing of creativity between different realities. The main goal of the project is to offer a bridge linking Berlin-based and Vietnamese artists that will benefit both sides. Hoping that interesting new works might emerge and continue beyond this specific event.
Designed by Soviet Droid
After a first edition in Hanoi, in April 2019 supported by the Goethe Institut Hanoï and the Institut Français Vietnam, the project will have a continuity in a very atypical place located in the heart of Berlin. The second edition of this exchange between Vietnamese and German musicians and composers is supported by die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien - Musikfonds, Asia-Europe Foundation and Prince Claus Mobility Fund.
The second edition to the two part series: Blind Signal GRMN-VTNM, nine solo musicians, composers and multimedia artists will be creating new pieces engaging the acoustic specificities of the Kleiner Wasserspeicher, in Berlin. The project is presented by der Monat der zeitgenössischen Musik.
AGF poemproducer aka Antye Greie, Audrey Chen, Hương DonNa, Els Vandeweyer, Erik K Skodvin, Lương Huệ Trinh, Julius Holtz, LinhHafornow and Sabine Ercklentz are invited for five days of collective work, willing to create a common ground in the exploration of sonic arts, promoting immersive group listening experiences fully stimulate by noise, silence, frequency, transmission, performativities of media objects, resonance and acoustics, while remaining sensitive to the individual complexities and poetics of each identities.
Above all we understand that project location has an undeniable impact on artistic creation. Therefore, this residency will offer to artists an atypical crossing space where their experience can be expanded, both for Hanoi and Berlin residents. Blind Signal is a celebration of Sound art as a possible platform for connection between distant geographies, communities and cultural backgrounds.
Following three days of research, the musicians and composers will offer solo live acts and several sound pieces that will be presented in the premises at the Kleiner Wasserspeicher on Friday 20 & Saturday 21 of September, 2019.
Friday, 20th of September
19:00 CET
Lương Huệ Trinh (VN) Live
Erik K Skodvin (DE/NO) Live
Collaborative concerts with AGF poemproducer aka Antye Greie, Audrey Chen, Hương DonNa, Els Vandeweyer, Erik K Skodvin, Lương Huệ Trinh, Julius Holtz, LinhHafornow and Sabine Ercklentz
Designed by Soviet Droid
Saturday, 21st of September
19:00 CET
Hương DonNa (VN) Live
LinhHàfornow (VN) Live
Audrey Chen (DE,US) Live
Collaborative concerts with AGF poemproducer aka Antye Greie, Audrey Chen, Hương DonNa, Els Vandeweyer, Erik K Skodvin, Lương Huệ Trinh, Julius Holtz, LinhHafornow and Sabine Ercklentz
Designed by Soviet Droid
The audience was invited to walk around the space during the performances
SONIFICATION OF THE SPACE
For the collaborative compositions, each artists have their own speakers connected to their own instruments/electronics devises, in order to enhance sound localization.
Sound concept: Tadklimp & Emilie Beffara
Sound engineer: Tadklimp
Assistant sound technician: Baptiste Moulin
VIDEOS DURING THE PERFORMANCES
The first video, were footage founded online by AGF Poemproducer. They were videos from Ha-Neu (Vietnam) and Halle-Neustadt - an utopian socialist working class built nearby chemical plant, many of the 60 000 DDR based Vietnamese guest workers lived there - in the 80s
The second video, was part of #sonicwilderness, a workshop led by AGF Poemproducer during the first part of Blind Signal GRMN VTNM artists residency project.
The third video, were combined footage taken during the first edition of the artists residency in Vietnam, when Hương DonNa, LinhHafornow, Lương Huệ Trinh and AGF Poemproducer went visited two small sewing factories outside Hanoi. They played a show with the sounds recorded and video footage during Blind Signal VTNM GRMN and reworked the compositions on the last three days, here in Berlin. Extract HERE.
Artistic directions, concept, curation and production of Blind Signal GRMN VTNM: Emilie Beffara