Storefront for Art and Architecture will present 007_Urban_Songline by Allard van Hoorn from January 18 – February 18, 2012. The exhibition is the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York and will continue his series of works that explore the tradition of Songlines through a site-specific, newly commissioned work that will literally transform the Acconci/Holl façade into a sound instrument.
An opening reception will take place on January 17th from 7 pm – 9 pm.
The origin of Songlines [or Dreaming Tracks] can be traced to Australian indigenous systems for navigation and caretaking of land achieved by mapping space through the creation of music based on the topography of land. Throughout the duration of 007_Urban_Songline, van Hoorn will create a series of Dreaming Tracks utilizing the changing morphology of the Storefront façade and the sounds emerging from the urban sonic context of the gallery.
The installation will consist of an interwoven network of strings throughout the façade and the gallery space that will transform the facade into an interactive, responsive musical instrument. Storefront’s façade contains 12 panels that pivot vertically or horizontally to open the entire length of the gallery directly onto the street. When a panel of the façade moves, the strings will physically activate the totality of the façade and acoustically transform the space of the gallery making the different spatial transformations audible for visitors. Visitors will become performers and will be encouraged to manipulate the installation as they transcend the space by moving the panels of the façade and stretching and playing the fields of strings with their bodies, thus constructing and transforming the acoustic and visual topography of Storefront.
The project will allow the visitor to experiment on an architectural scale the connection between sound, tension, materiality and space.
Orchestrating the sounds between urban context and installation content, van Hoorn will strategically distribute a system of microphones throughout the different acoustic nodes around the gallery and its surroundings that will all merge into a synthesized, real time Songline audible to visitors in the gallery. The continuous Urban Songline produced throughout the length of the exhibition will be constantly streamed live and recorded and available in the Storefront Sound Archive.
For the opening night of the exhibition, van Hoorn will perform a concert of 7 Urban Songlines recorded in the space throughout the pre-opening days. In addition to performances held in the space throughout the length of the exhibition, Storefront will host events to discuss the theme of Public City Sounds; including a panel discussion moderated by the artist with sound engineers and architects. During the closing event, which will take place on February 18, 2012 at 7 PM, a live performance will mix different versions of the Storefront Songline that will then be cut live into vinyl and given away.
About the Artist
Allard van Hoorn is a Dutch contemporary performance, sound and installation artist collaborating across the disciplines of architecture, music, theater and design. Van Hoorn choreographs scripts and scenarios for the urban environment and spatial structures investigating the relationship between shared domains and the possibilities of negotiating co-ownership and appropriation of public space.
Van Hoorn has presented six exhibitions and performances that trace the tradition of the Songlines, including exhibitions at Flux-S in Eindhoven, NL; Gasworks in London, UK; the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, NL; the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany and the Gwangju Design Biennale. 007 Urban Songline will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York. For a sample of the artists’ former Urban Songline projects, please visit the following link: http://www.allardvanhoorn.com/biography_002.asp.
