Li Tavor and Nicolas Buzzi are interested in music, sound and architecture. Their project Talking Measures or How to Lose Track, developed especially for the exhibition spaces of the Istituto Svizzero in Milan, is nourished by this interest and makes the connections between sound, architecture and the body moving within it experienceable for the visitors.
The setting, conceived through an interdisciplinary approach by developing an alchemy of sounds, installations and sound creations, is a music installation in search of today’s significance of the multiplicity of possible ways to relate. The work deals with the relationship between space and body and the fluid boundaries of perception in relation to universally defined metric systems. While we often find ourselves in situations where relations become tangible and real through standardized measurements and their societal meaning, the installation tries to encourage other, less efficient or sturdy lines of orientation. Treating music, sound and sound waves as physical, space generating entities, the two artists create a network of spatial relations that the body, that our bodies as spectators, can follow or lose track of.
Entering the Istituto Svizzero we are surrounded by a defined acoustic space, created by eight voices, sounding from the corners of the space. While the positions of the eight sound sources define and measure the actual physical space, the human voices we hear also dissolve it again by creating a second space, which is very personal, and thus establishes an intuitive proximity. This kind of ambiguity is further improved by the presence of several objects with assigned roles. The objects either produce sound, they reflect it, or they block it, while sometimes they are given a combination. Through changing perspectives of the visitor’s bodies, the functionality of the object’s roles and their representational significance, which is communicated through their appearance, reveal the objects ambiguous identity.
(Istituto Svizzero)
Talking Measures or How to Lose Track
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Added on 11 April 2022
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Li Tavor and Nicolas Buzzi are interested in music, sound and architecture. Their project Talking Measures or How to Lose Track, developed especially for the exhibition spaces of the Istituto Svizzero in Milan, is nourished by this interest and makes the connections between sound, architecture and the body moving within it experienceable for the visitors.
The setting, conceived through an interdisciplinary approach by developing an alchemy of sounds, installations and sound creations, is a music installation in search of today’s significance of the multiplicity of possible ways to relate. The work deals with the relationship between space and body and the fluid boundaries of perception in relation to universally defined metric systems. While we often find ourselves in situations where relations become tangible and real through standardized measurements and their societal meaning, the installation tries to encourage other, less efficient or sturdy lines of orientation. Treating music, sound and sound waves as physical, space generating entities, the two artists create a network of spatial relations that the body, that our bodies as spectators, can follow or lose track of.
Entering the Istituto Svizzero we are surrounded by a defined acoustic space, created by eight voices, sounding from the corners of the space. While the positions of the eight sound sources define and measure the actual physical space, the human voices we hear also dissolve it again by creating a second space, which is very personal, and thus establishes an intuitive proximity. This kind of ambiguity is further improved by the presence of several objects with assigned roles. The objects either produce sound, they reflect it, or they block it, while sometimes they are given a combination. Through changing perspectives of the visitor’s bodies, the functionality of the object’s roles and their representational significance, which is communicated through their appearance, reveal the objects ambiguous identity.
(Istituto Svizzero)
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