“The sculpture is not the material (the chairs and pedestals), nor is it what might be heard (the everyday sounds...) - the sculpture is the listening process itself"
The chairs and the people sitting on them are the “chair piece”. They merge into one unit – into a living sculpture. The music that is expected to arise from the act of listening itself. The audio stage is an integral part of the artistic experience.
Since 1995, Ablinger has created various chair pieces in different indoor and outdoor spaces. The arrangement '3 × 4 Chairs and Platform' for the Sound Path is one piece in a series – he calls it 'Weiss / Weisslich 29'. He describes the beginning, the idea for the series, as follows:
“I was working on a piece. It was supposed to take place in the open air on a green meadow. I had a first idea of sound. I imagined a checkerboard-like structure, a grid through which one walks. Sound sources. In one corner there is one noise, from another corner comes another sound. But I didn't want to put loudspeakers on the meadow. Then I thought of tape recorders. But where do I put them? If it's going to be a 6x6 grid, I thought, then I have to think about pedestals. I didn't like that either. Folding chairs? They're unobtrusive. And tape recorders on them. I wanted to try that. How do tape recorders react outdoors? How far does the sound carry? On December 31, I loaded six chairs into the car and drove to the countryside in Brandenburg. Frosty weather. Cold. Light snow. Windy. On a snow-covered field, I placed the chairs in a row and then the recorders on them – all while running because it was so cold. A 60-meter line. I turned on all the recorders one after the other. Listened briefly. Dismantled everything. Too cold. Back into the car. And suddenly I knew: the best moment was before I placed the tape recorders on the chairs. The row of chairs alone is enough. I don't need a sound source at all.“ Not the sound, but the listening is the piece. ”My material is not sound. My material is audibility.”
About the artist
Austrian-born Peter Ablinger studied graphic arts and graduated in composition. He has been living in Berlin since 1982, where he initiated and directed festivals and concerts. He founded the Zwischentöne ensemble in 1988 and was a guest conductor of Klangforum Wien, United Berlin and the Insel Musik Ensemble. Peter Ablinger has been working as a freelance musician since 1990. His work includes scores, electronic pieces, installations and conceptual works. In doing so, he repeatedly questioned the perception of reality through the ear.
ablinger.mur.at ↗
