PARIS.- This group exhibition is inspired by a unique concept of listening that the American experimental composer Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016) refers to as Deep Listening, which, in her words, "involves going beneath the surface of what is heard." At the heart of this practice is an acute awareness of the fact that there is always more to hear "beneath the surface" of the audible, in the recesses of the acoustic environment. The Deep Listening experience is open to new forms of sensoriality and represents a commitment to continue developing our listening skills through scores that, rather than guiding the interpretation of music, suggest attentional strategies and ways of listening to ourselves, others and the environment. In Oliveros’ work, the practice of attention is most often conducted in a collective setting. In most of her compositions, she provides open-ended indications that must be negotiated collectively by the performers, involving a great deal of attention and receptivity to others and to what is happening.

The exhibition "Un·Tuning Together" brings Pauline Oliveros’ practice face to face with those of artists whose research reflects and expands on her proposals. Each artist is invited to inhabit the entire space and to share with participating audiences practices that bring into play the principles of improvisation and mutual listening within a group. Their proposals will alternate in a programme of collective work and public performances. Oliveros’ work will also be practised collectively through regular sessions dedicated to the experience of ’Sound Meditations’. Her work has become a kind of catalyst for thinking collectively - with artists, researchers, participating audiences and the Bétonsalon team - about how bodies involved in these listening practices can generate changes on both personal and social levels.

This exhibition is the second part of "Dissolving your ear plugs", curated by Maud Jacquin with Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre, at the Musée d’art de Joliette, Québec, from June 11 to September 4, 2023. It is produced in collaboration with the Musée d’art de Joliette, Quebec. It is supported by ADAGP - Société d’auteurs française pour les arts visuels, the Pernod Ricard Foundation, the Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie du Québec and the Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères de la République française, as part of the Commission permanente de coopération franco-québécoise (CPCFQ), the Institut Français and the City of Paris, and the international residencies programme at the Centre d’accueil et d’échanges des Récollets de la Ville de Paris; and a partnership with the IAC for the Laboratoire Espace Cerveau.

Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016)

A feminist experimental composer, electronic music pioneer, accordionist, performer and educator, Pauline Oliveros has forged a singular conception of listening that she calls Deep Listening. According to Oliveros, "Deep Listening involves going beneath the surface of what is heard [...]. At the heart of his work is an acute awareness of the fact that there is always more to hear 'beneath the surface' of the audible, and a deep commitment to never ceasing to develop one's listening skills. Deep Listening can therefore be seen as a practice that Oliveros develops and tests through her compositions and that she shares with others, for example through her Sonic Meditations, which take the form of textual scores whose ambition is no longer to guide the interpretation of music but to propose 'attentional strategies', ways of listening to the environment, to oneself and to others.

Deep Listening is also a sensitive, embodied way of connecting with others and with what surrounds us. For the composer, listening is eminently corporeal, and sound, with its vibratory qualities and ability to transcend the limits of the body, enables us to establish a sensory relationship with the environment. Through Deep Listening, Oliveros invites listeners not only to experience this relationship, but also to feel and think about the way in which sounds affect us physically, psychologically and emotionally. Finally, for Oliveros, the experience of Deep Listening opens up new forms of sensoriality and can lead to the transformation of the subject and his or her relational modalities. In this sense, her project is both rooted in sensitive experience and profoundly political.

Bétonsalon

Bétonsalon develops activities in collaborative ways, with local, national and international organisations. Our program includes solo or collective exhibitions, with emerging, reemerging, confirmed or forgotten artists, multidisciplinary events with the best exchange quality, actions and research focused on mediation and experimental pedagogy, research and creation residencies, outdoor projects engaged with local visitors and structures, and other actions which are yet to be defined.

Bétonsalon
Un·Tuning Together: Practicing Listening with Pauline Oliveros
September 20th, 2023 - December 2nd, 2023
Exhibition opening: Friday, September 22, from 4pm to 9pm
Curators : Maud Jacquin et Émilie Renard