Acoustic Signature
Itzik Gil Avizohar, Hannes Lingens , Deraon Olam Ensemble
7.1-20.3.23
Curators: Amir Bolzman and Sala-Manca
Acoustic Signature is an exhibition comprised of three original works that were commissioned by the Tea House as part of the Mamuta Sound Residency Program. The works deal with the attempt to capture, document, and realize various sound spaces and to recreate them within the space of the sound gallery. The acoustic signature of the spaces presented in the exhibition varies according to the recording method and the artist’s intention. Whether capturing a particular resonance or soundscape or creating a space for playing and listening, the three works strive to convey the unique qualities of each given space.
Itzik Avizohar’s work, Forevermore, is inspired by S.Y. Agnon’s story by the same name, set in Jerusalem’s leper’s home (today’ Hansen House). In the story, the protagonist is a scholar named Adiel Amzeh, whose life work has been the study of the ancient city of Gumlidata. Inspired by the invasion of Gumlidata, Adiel is moved to break in to the leper’s hospital, only to find that he must stay there forever.
Forevermore treats the story’s theme of invasion as a metaphysical element. Using the Impulse Response technique, Avizohar (in collaboration with Amir Boltzman) sampled echoes of different spaces (some exposed, some hidden) from inside Hansen House. He creates an acoustic portrait of the internal spaces of the building into which he echoes sounds from the outside world.
In his work Giv’at HaMatos (literally, Airplane Hill) Hannes Lingens documents and sketches the geopolitical sound space of the Jerusalem periphery. Giv’at HaMatos (which on a clear day can be seen from the Tea House) is located between the neighborhoods of Gilo, Talpiot, Beit Safafa, and Sur Baher in southern Jerusalem. The recording captures a moment in the history of the space: the hill, which had been a caravan neighborhood for new immigrants, was abandoned over the past decade and is now slated to become a massive new residential neighborhood. In his recordings of the area, Linges used binaural microphones to create a 3-D stereo sound sensation that enables the recorder/listener to listen to the soundscape from his own personal perspective.
The Light of the Moon Will Be As Bright as the Sun is a collaborative work by the Deraon Olam Ensemble. It is an edited documentation of a durational piece performed in the Judean Desert. The members of the ensemble spread out over a large area and communicated with one another through the topographic specificities of the desert. The recordings are recreated in the Tea House and seem to capture the vast space of the desert within the unique structure of the gallery.
Itzik Gil Avizohar is a sound artist and multi-disciplinary composer. His works are presented on a variety of platforms and stages, including sound sculptures in abandoned spaces, performance pieces in galleries, live performance on theater stages, and site- and time-specific sound installations. His artistic research focuses primarily on the spiritual characteristics of sound, in dialogue with the worlds of mysticism and metaphysics and sometimes even arouses a feeling of being persecuted by the spirits.
Hannes Lingens is a Germany-based musician and composer. His works play on the tension between written music and improvised music. In recent years he has become interested in field recordings; in the last year during his residency at the Ananeh Center for Nature, Art, and Research at Ein Yael and at the Mamuta Center for Art and Research, he researched the acoustical space of Jerusalem.
Deraon Olam Ensemble was founded in 2016 by a group of artists living and working in Jerusalem and sharing a common interest in exploring, experimenting, writing and playing Drone Music. The work on each piece includes a series of rehearsals in which the ensemble members explore the musical foundations of the drone by studying texts by different thinkers, listening to the works, practicing meditation practices and playing.
Curators: Amir Bolzman and Sala-Manca | Text editing: Ronit Rozental | English translation: Tamar Cohen | Project management: Naama Mokady | Technical support: Eitan Habib | Graphic design: Anat Gutberg
The exhibition was produced with the assistance of the Lottery Council for Culture and Art as part of a residency program.
Openig hours: Mon-Thur 10:00-22:00, Fri 10:00-16:00
Image: Hannes Lingens
Additional events at the exhibition:
Convolution: A workshop with Itzik Gil Avizohar
16.1, 17:00