Ei Arakawa, Gela Patashuri and Sergei Tcherepnin:
Be a speaker. So be it…
September / October 2011
The Showroom (London)
Bétonsalon (Paris)
CAC Brétigny (Greater Paris)
For further information about the exhibitions and associated events, please visit:
www.theshowroom.org
www.betonsalon.net
www.cacbretigny.com
Ei Arakawa, Gela Patashuri and Sergei Tcherepnin are part of a new generation of artists that reinvent the notions of collective work and interdisciplinarity in the art field. They work as a team in search of engagements with objects through sound and sonic experiments, taking inspiration from the spirit of the Jikken Kobo movement (1951–1958). Be a speaker. So be it… evolved out of work that the artists have been doing towards establishing a new contemporary art centre in Tbilisi, Georgia. So far, plans for this are imaginary, inspiring them to devise a music festival in 2009 and develop the project Hurt Locker Instruments at Casco, Utrecht, in 2010, as part of the project Circular Facts. Be a speaker… marks a new phase in this Georgian-inspired project, which is to be developed and formed by the artists into diverse presentations in three locations.
The Showroom
Be a speaker. So be it… (X version)
Saturday 3 September 2011, 7–8pm: Preview and The Ensemble Performance
Wednesdays 7 and 14 September, 12–6pm: The Ensemble Performance from 3–4pm
Curator: Emily Pethick
Ei Arakawa, Gela Patashuri and Sergei Tcherepnin are collaborating on a human-size ‘speaker’ structure that will be assembled in The Showroom’s exhibition space. This ‘sound room’ will function both as a loudspeaker and a music studio—housing objects and materials ready for an ensemble to play a specific score. The ensemble will comprise Showroom staff and members of the gallery’s local community, instructed by the artists for performances on 3, 7 and 14 September. The installation at The Showroom will also incorporate 3D drawings and a slide show of plans for the Tbilisi Center for Contemporary Art, both based on drawings by Gela Patashuri.
Bétonsalon
Jikken Kobo 実験工房: The Experimental Workshop
9 September–29 October 2011
Opening: Thursday 8 September, 6-9pm, with the performance Be a speaker. So be it… (Y version) by Ei Arakawa, Gela Patashuri, Sergei Tcherepnin (8pm)
Curator: Mélanie Mermod
Jikken Kobo was a collective based in Tokyo composed of visual artists, composers, photographers, designers, a poet and music critic, a lighting designer, a writer, a pianist and an engineer. Active from 1951 to 1958, the Jikken Kobo generated atypical artistic events, proposing a transdisciplinary vision focused on collaborative work, experimentation with new presentation formats and a ‘sensory’ experience of art.
Bétonsalon presents an exhibition and unique events related to this collective: a talk with Joji Yuasa—composer and former member of Jikken Kobo—and Reiko Tomii—NYC-based art historian—a film program at the House of Japan of Paris (MCJP), and a piano concert of Jikken Kobo compositions in the exhibition space by Aki Takahashi—celebrated interpreter of Xenakis, Cage and Feldman.
Ei Arakawa, Gela Patashuri and Sergei Tcherepnin will present a performed version of Be a speaker… in tribute to this Japanese collective.
CAC Brétigny
Be a speaker. So be it… (Z version)
22 September–22 October 2011
Opening: Thursday 22 September, 7-10pm
Curator: Pierre Bal-Blanc
At CAC Brétigny, Be a speaker. So be it… takes the shape of an exhibition whose score is activated by The Ensemble Performance, composed by members of the art centre’s team. It offers an insight into the sources of Arakawa, Patashuri and Tcherepnin’s work, highlighting their historical and personal links with Japan and the connections between this region of France with Georgia. Brétigny is part of the same conurbation as the city of Leuville that hosted in 1922 the first government of the Republic of Georgia after it had been forced into exile, and a large Georgian community still lives in the city. This provides a further opportunity for the artists to explore the audacity of Georgian Modernism, relegated, like Jikken Kobo, to the footnotes of history.
