HIS MASTER’S VOICE: On Voice and Language
23 March–7 July 2013
Opening: Friday, March 22, 19h
Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) at Dortmunder U
Zentrum für Kunst und Kreativität (Centre for Art and Creativity)
Leonie-Reygers-Terrasse
44137 Dortmund, Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Wednesday 11–18h,
Thursday–Friday 11–20h, Saturday–Sunday 11–18h
info [at] hmkv.de
www.hmkv.de
We are acting through language—but how does language act through us? The exhibition HIS MASTER’S VOICE: On Voice and Language addresses the uncanny, irritating or comical moments produced by the human voice and language. This selection of performances, videos and web projects lets spectators experience the emotional, social and political potential of the voice. How is the voice connected to the body and identity of the individual? What happens when the spoken word detaches itself from the speaker, the text from its meaning, the sound from the image? What if the voice no longer belongs to the body from which it emanates? The artists in this exhibition listen to ventriloquists and voice-over artists as well as propagandists and preachers. They explore and re-enact historic and contemporary speech acts, probing the emotional and spiritual effect of the vocal power and word games, and playing with shifts of meaning and identity. While doing so, they also experiment with the various media used to record, reproduce or silence the voice.
HIS MASTER’S VOICE: On Voice and Language is an exhibition on the performativity of voice and language, the inauthenticity and uncanniness of speaking, voice as a political speech act, and language as performative utterance. The exhibition will examine the ‘urge to speak in contemporary art’ (Sabine Maria Schmidt). Artists are increasingly interested in speech acts and the corporeality and performativity of the human voice, tackling a broad range of issues from the analysis of the voice as an indicator of presence and identity to examinations of historic and contemporary political rhetoric, including such extreme forms as hate speech.
The exhibition includes works by Christophe Bruno (FR), Erik Bünger (SE), William S. Burroughs & Anthony Balch (US), Aslı Çavuşoğlu (TR), YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES (KR), Dortmunder Sprechchor (DE), Jakup Ferri (KOS), Jochen Gerz (DE), Richard Grayson (UK), Asta Gröting (DE), Daniel Hofer (DE), Anette Hoffmann / Andrea Bellu / Matei Bellu / Regina Sarreiter (DE), International Institute of Political Murder (CH), Ignas Krunglevicius (LT/NO), Bruce Nauman (US), Stefan Panhans (DE), Julius Popp (DE), Laure Prouvost (FR/UK), Kathrin Resetarits (AT), Peter Rose (US), Manuel Saiz (ES), Anri Sala (AL), Richard Serra with Nancy Holt (US), Katarina Zdjelar (SR/NL), Artur Zmijewski (PL), and others.
Curated by Inke Arns
Generously supported by Kunststiftung NRW
Main funders of HMKV: Kulturbüro Stadt Dortmund, Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes NRW
Kindly supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy
Kindly supported by the Office for Visual Arts/Institut français in collaboration with the French Ministry for Culture and Communication/DGCA
Kindly supported by Pro Helvetia, Swiss Cultural Foundation
Admission
Free admission on the first Wednesday of every month
Free admission for minors (under 18)
Guided tours
Thursdays 18h, Sundays/public holidays 16h
Guided tours are included in the admission fee
