Output details

In the First Circle

Group exhibition (co- curated with Paul Domela) at Fundacio Antoni Tapies, Barcelona, 2011-12.

'In the First Circle' was a curatorial project in which the exhibition was used as a medium to test and extend my artistic research within a broader field. The exhibition addressed the borders of language: where different languages or forms of meaning meet in modes of translation, conflict or non-understanding. The 24 works, including 4 new commissions, asked questions about how we deal with different forms of language, of 'understanding' and non-understanding. The exhibition was informed by my continuing research in sound, and the voice in particular, as a way to rethink notions of subject-hood rooted in the predominantly visual regime of Western culture. The aim of the project was to reflect on the different forms of meaning and relationship proposed by a number of specific art works and through new relationships set up between the works, in the gallery spaces. The exhibition was conceived as a performative space in which the encounter between different forms of language, between the works and visitors, could be experienced, as well as reflected upon. On another level, the exhibition constituted a landscape of different approaches, perspectives and artistic positions related to language, and the voice in particular.

A publication was produced, conceived less as a catalogue than as an extension of the exhibition. With a specially commissioned essay by Slovenian philosopher Mladen Dolar (author of 'The Voice and Nothing More'), contextual material reprinted by permission of The Guardian and MIT press and contributions but some of the participating artists. Designed by Salome Schmuki, 48pp, colour, pub. Barcelona: Fundacio Antoni Tapiès 2011.