04 Dec 2014

Netwerk / center for contemporary art: group exhibition Orkest!

opening event Orkest!
Oliver Beer / Rubén D'hers / Nicolas Field / Julian Sartorius / Michael Schmid / Konrad Smoleński / Rutger Zuydervelt
SA 06.12 2014 – 20:00
SU 07.12 2014 > FR 06.03 2015

The exhibition Orkest! will see the entire Netwerk building played as an instrument. The scope of the opening night extends even further, with the entire city of Aalst as the stage. The exhibition will be officially opened from the roof of Netwerk, with a concert for 23 foghorns by Heleen Van Haegenborgh, and the installation by Konrad Smoleński will be accompanied by a live drum solo by Julian Sartorius, which will in turn become a part of the installation.

Heleen Van Haegenborgh Signaux on foghorns

Pianist and composer Heleen Van Haegenborgh chose foghorns to accompany the piano pieces on her début CD Signaux. She discovered Raoul de La Roch Aymon on YouTube, a Frenchman who collects ship horns. From his collection of more than 300 horns, she selected 23, which when combined span a range of two octaves. She then had the Frenchman construct a piano that could be used to operate the horns. The resulting foghorn organ can be heard for kilometres, there of course being no volume adjuster. Compressed air is pumped through each horn in the array when its corresponding key is pressed. The operation of the keyboard is a binary process. This means it's all or nothing; each horn blows or remains silent, with no middle ground in between. The horns assume their characteristic tones as their sound travels through the open space, in this case that of the city of Aalst.

Julian Sartorius drum solo

The installation Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More by Konrad Smoleński (Polish Pavilion Venice Biennale 2013) makes use of the sounds of all the works in the Orkest! exhibition and incorporates them into a unique orchestral performance. On the evening of the opening, percussionist Julian Sartorius will play a drum solo as part of Smoleński's work. This solo will in turn be recorded to be used as an additional audio source for the installation. The drum itself will also become a part of the work — in addition to the bells and speakers — adding another resonating object to the daily performance.


20:00 official opening sound on foghorns
20:45 concert Heleen Van Haegenborgh
21:30 concert Julian Sartorius in the installation of Konrad Smoleński