Buildings

Building, wall, door, window, corridor, basement, balcony, stairs, kitchen and storeys…

Is it possible to read walls? Why listen to a wall? Is it possible to feel the energy in a room – energy which is beyond the realm of language and words?

The first connection I made with a building and a place provided an opportunity to slow down time by listening to the sounds enclosed by the various parts of the building. From a very young age, I was interested in walls, rooms and structures; It intrigued me to stay in a familiar room or space and try to follow the events within only by listening, observing and being alert. A room is a vessel which contains information. Every human activity makes its overt and hidden imprint on a space. 

 Compacted and abstract data functions as evidence of tension, conflict, disorder, collapse, chaos and calm.

Can abstract sound which is both enclosed and active within a wall serve as a bridge for an external ear – a bridge leading to feeling and comprehension beyond language? A link to the strangers who lived by these walls, to human functions unfamiliar to me, to tensions which left their mark so as to be felt but not seen? 

This was my point of departure as an artist when engaged in the recording of structures and buildings.

For me, every museum which commissioned my work warranted a preliminary action of listening. I recorded the buildings months before I even formulated my proposal for the exhibitions and these recordings have become a required field action mandatory requisite for the very beginning of any thinking process.

An architectural space hosts any kind of human activity on the one hand, while simultaneously becoming a container for disparate strata of information dating to different periods of time. Abstract and contradicting remnants of life enclosed as sound in the walls. Understanding the contradiction, tension and conflict enclosed in a wall is a key comprehension for me as an artist, for the crucial part of listening before thought.

This journey shows some of the buildings I have been recording and listening to for months. In every museum and space, I formulated a specific installation of works that matched its unique data. The information I collected from each building or museum became part of the artworks in the exhibition, which also served as agents that surfaced denied subconscious material through the muteness of the active image.