Artica Listens 2021
September 18–25, 2021
Room 11 (Latitude: 78.223, Longitude: 15.646)
September 18–November 28, 2021
Longyearbyen
Artica Listens: Ignas Krunglevičius
Hosted by Artica Svalbard, at FOSSIL (outside the Longyear Energy Plant)
(September 18–25, 2021)
For Artica Listens 2021, artist and composer Ignas Krunglevičius presents a new sonic installation inside a disused coal power plant in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The plant closed its doors in 1984 and has remained virtually untouched ever since. The installation utilises the empty architecture and machinery left behind since the plant closed down. By manipulating the ambiance and acoustic reverberation Krunglevičius is interested in altering the audience’s perception and experience of this environment, turning the building into a sonic performance where visitors can explore not only the history and identity of Longyearbyen’s past but also the interior spaces and rhythms created through the use of 24 channels, installed as a designed pathway that will loop over time.
Ignas Krunglevičius, (b. 1979, Kaunas, Lithuania) is known for his highly innovative and experimental approach to art-making, often combining sound, text and imagery to create installations and sculpture which explore the intermix between the agency of power, economy, nature and existential realities generated by global technological development. Krunglevičius currently lives and works in Oslo. He received his MA in music composition from Norwegian Academy of Music in 2010. Since 2011 he has been co-directing the artist-run space Podium.
For further details visit here.
Sean Snyder, Room 11 (Latitude: 78.223, Longitude: 15.646)
Hosted by Kunsthall Svalbard at the Longyearbyen Public Library
(September 18–November 28, 2021)
The point of departure for Sean Snyder’s exhibition at Longyearbyen Public Library is a rather inconspicuous little room at the former National Gallery of Norway devoted to 19th-century “studies and sketches.” Simply referred to as “Room 11,” the space presented 69 works under the general rubric “Fleeting impressions and abundance of detail.” In February 2018 Snyder spent several days in the room, meticulously cataloguing the exhibit. Observing the behavior of museum visitors photographing art with their smartphones or digital cameras, Snyder noted that none of the artworks displayed in the room conformed to any standard screen format. Northern Lights over Coastal Landscape, a Peder Balke painting slightly larger in format than an index card, left an enduring impression on the artist with its monochromatic depiction of multicolor aurora borealis. Through a series of operations Snyder has reconstructed the no-longer existing museum space as an informational entity with a distinctive visual identity. This entity will be on display in the library and deposited for “future-proof” reference in the Arctic World Archive, which is located inside a former coal mine nearby.
Sean Snyder (b. 1972 in Virginia Beach, USA) has been a prolific and influential artist on the international art scene for two decades, with solo exhibitions at key institutions such as Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Institute for Contemporary Arts (London), Israeli Center for Digital Art (Holon), Kölnischer Kunstverein (Cologne), National Museum of Contemporary Art (Bucharest), Index Stockholm), Wiener Secession (Vienna), and Van Abbe Museum (Eindhoven). Recent solo exhibitions include Aurora Borealis at Galerie Neu (Berlin, 2017) and Aspect Ratio / Dispositif at Galerie Chantal Crousel (Paris, 2016).
For further details visit here, and Longyearbyen folkebibliotek’s Facebook page.
