translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
010908: Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum: Bernard Leitner – Pulsating silence
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum: Bernard Leitner – Pulsating silence
In the sound-roller coaster
A wooden spoon is incessantly beating onto a metal pot. The sound flows over the back of your arms, over your head and down to your legs. Suddenly a buzzing sound from all sides – tinny and vibrant. Goose bumps. Close your eyes and place your feet on the markings of Bernhard Leitner’s “Sound-Suit” (1975), and - despite the technology used dates back to the 70s - you will experience a sound-theatre with Dolby-Surround Sound quality. Now the “Sound-Suit” hangs lifelessly on the wall of the Tiroler Landesmuseum, seemingly defying Leitner’s original purpose of designing it for lively performances. A remarkably simple but effective construction: a cloth draped with a net and four loudspeakers placed under Plexiglas domes.
Bernhard Leitner, born 1938 in Feldkirch, moved to New York in 1968 and was an Austrian pioneer in the New York art scene. Music-guru John Cage was his great inspiration to create new sound dimensions. Leitner, who had studied architecture, provides a spatial dimension to sound. One can even swing on his creations, as for example on his “Sound-Swing” (1975/76).
Illustrations and black and white photographs represent valuable side products of his continued research of sound space. In his sound space sculpture “Serpentinata” (2008) the artist utilizes digital sound technology, and with the help of curved plastic tubes makes the movement of sound visible. Numerous small loudspeakers along the tubes transmit the sonance. “Come and take a ride in the sound roller coaster!” But after a while the initially pleasing tones become unbearable. “Where is the exit?” an irritated tourist asks. Sound-art is truly not a Sunday concert.
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum
6020 Innsbruck, Museumstrasse 15, until 07. 09. 08
www.tirolkultur.at/ferdinandeum
010908
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum
6020 Innsbruck, Museumstrasse 15
Tel: +43 512 59 489, Fax: +43 512 59 489-88
Email: pr@tiroler-landesmuseum.at
https://www.tiroler-landesmuseen.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di - Sa 10 - 12 & 14 - 17, So 10 - 13h
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum
6020 Innsbruck, Museumstrasse 15
Tel: +43 512 59 489, Fax: +43 512 59 489-88
Email: pr@tiroler-landesmuseum.at
https://www.tiroler-landesmuseen.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di - Sa 10 - 12 & 14 - 17, So 10 - 13h