SAN SEBASTIAN.- Leave a mark. A signal. Embroider initials on clothing. Make an incision. Mark a place. Point out something so that it is known. Aim briefly. A sign. A signal.
Sound is matter. Sound as the only character. The sound as the plan of a place. Sound as the record of someone, of a time, of a town. When Pauline Oliveros told us that one does not hear a sound, but the place where it sounds, the moment when it sounds, who it sounds with… It is understood that this material does not hang on a wall, does not wait for you to arrive to be named; I need you, yes, but maybe not as one might think. These works have that particularity: they are composed of sounds that rewrites when you listen to them. The writing of the sound, its letter, the note, the mark on paper, the sign that hides a language for the one who writes or for the one who reads. Maybe professional “listeners” could tell a story only of the sounds that have been left in the margin, that binds the shores together, not repeatable sounds, sound film, loose papers, loose letters, signs.
This exhibition presents the research of the ARR EDIZIOAK project (composed of Audiolab + ELSA Records), and tends to be a side note of the exhibitions dedicated to sound, bringing together a series of works that reflect on sound as a medium. This exhibition includes works by Andres Doñate, Alex Mendizabal, Bruce McClure, Xabier Erkizia and Juanjo Aranguren who are sound writers, deeply connected through their works and experiences. In their immediate environment, we do not see the cohesion that time has given us over other groups, that have been references for the artists on display, but we can assume that friendship can be a common thread.
Sound-Art is interdisciplinary by nature and it can materialize through an infinite number of applications that go back and forth between music ( musique concrète, electroacoustic, electronic, noise, ambient, etc.) and the a priori understood as conventional arts (sculpture, video art, cinema…). Relating its story here and now is not relevant but it deserves to recall its relatively recent genealogy, from John Cage and Fluxus through Christian Marclay and turntablism, Max Neuhaus and the sculpture in public space, aforementioned Pauline Oliveros and the idea of Deep Listening, or Luca Ferrari and the radio art, just to mention a few references that show us the creative plurality behind the label Sound-Art.
We, all the platforms that have had the sensibility to broadcast sounds like noise, but ordered, annotated, signed by the language and register of the artists, which is after all a way of indicating a place and a space, assume that there are as many writing possibilities as there are signs and people. This is just a beginning that brings together the works of Andres Doñate, Alex Mendizabal, Bruce McClure, Xabier Erkizia y Juanjo Aranguren.
