15/10/2016
concert
Christine Schörkhuber and Zorka Wolny
Presentation of music pieces from
Seven miniatures on El Hadji Sy
- ‘Alienated voices. Crackling noises. Abstract sounds of unidentifiable origins … these are just some of the sources that Zorka Wollny, visual artist / composer from Krakow (whose work a.o. has been presented at CTM Berlin or ICI London), and her Austrian partner Christine Schörkhuber - freelance sound artist, video maker and musician with residencies in St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Valparaíso, Buenos Aires a.o. – apply to create seven acoustic miniatures that are based on and inspired by paintings by Senegalese artist El Hadj Sy. Tracks like Blue Man or Alchemy can be perceived as a reference to the experiments of pioneers at the GRM like Pierre Schaeffer or Guy Reibel on the one hand and the sound collages of underground icons Nurse With Wound or Ghédalia Tazartès on the other. Enriched with a wide variety of sounds and reduced at the same time, the short pieces are far from dry academic exercises and display not only profound knowledge and artistry in contemporary sound art but also create dense atmospheres that permeate the captivating, at times unsettling music. An excellent work by 2 strong voices of the current art scene!’
- (Thomas Herbst Karl Records)
- ‘An exhibition has become a musical score. Zorka Wollny and Christine Schörkhuber chose seven works from the exhibition At first I thought I was dancing of the Senegalese artist El Hadji Sy, and devised an exceptional sound catalogue. Seven unique pieces have been created as a result. The visual syntax of a painting has been translated and developed into the poetics of sound. El Hadji Sy provides particular reasons for such an operation – he kicks the canvas, jumps or dances on top of it. He creates a specific, rhythm-based choreography for his paintings, independently from the Western tradition of visual arts. He is interested in the process, not in the object. He is interested in the body of the viewers, not in their sight. He is interested in the performativity of images. Wollny and Schörkhuber are perfectly able to recognize the third, temporal and sensory dimension of works by El Sy, and they have managed to expand the boundaries of painting through their musical compositions.’
- (Małgorzata Ludwisiak, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art Director, curator of El Hadji Sy’s exhibition)
- About the authors
- Christine Schörkhuber, MA
- freelance media artist, filmmaker and musician. She realizes big sound installations in public space as well as video art, musical composition and silent/noise performances. She performs solo under the name Canned Fit as well as together with various bands. She is a former member of the executive committee of the IG Kultur Österreich, the feminist DIYelectronic collective Mz. Baltazars Laboratory and part of the network for improvised music snim. CoFounder of the sound art exhibition Klangmanifeste.
- Zorka Wollny
- Artist and composer. Her musical and theatrical performances are created in direct reference to architecture, and her works are presented in the context of contemporary art, theatre (Malta Festival in Poznań, Shakespeare Festival in Gdańsk), as well as contemporary music (CTM Festival in Berlin, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Jazz&Experimental Music from Poland Istanbul-London, Audio Art Festival). She works at the Academy of Fine Arts in Szczecin and lives in Berlin.
- Christine Schörkhuber, MA
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