Dates: December 1–9, 2018
Location: ZIL Cultural Center, Moscow, Russia
Partners: Moscow Architecture School MARCH, ZIL Cultural Center
Curators: Sasha Elina, Yuri Palmin
Coordinator: Olga Rubtsova
Conference moderator: Aleksander Ostrogorsky
i.
SPATIAL COMPOSITION #3.X
"Spatial Сomposition #3.X" is a musical performance created by the composer Vladimir Gorlinsky. It is written for two improvising ensembles – 7 soloists and 10 performers – in a form of a text score that defines the overall composition, and sets the sound fields and trajectories for the participants. Their movements, the sounds they produce and their interactions in space exist in an unusual play that gives different musical and sensual results. The performance took place inside the halls and corridors, outside and even on top of the building.
ii.
GOST 111-35
A site-specific sound installation, the core idea of which is to reimagine and reveal the sonic memory of the glass.
The title of the installation refers to the official Russian State Standard number of clear sheet glass — “GOST 111-35”. Along with concrete and steel, this material was very popular in the Soviet Union in the 1930’s when one of the many prominent constructivist buildings of The Vesnin brothers’ Likhachev Palace of Culture (ZIL) was designed.
The signal, sent to the glass sheets through speakers to vibrate, is a 17-minute soundtrack travelling from one piece of glass to another with a delay, keeping an almost living constant music cycle throughout the course of the works presentation. It is composed of highly obscured sounds taken from film scenes of the Moscow urban environment, along with Soviet and Russian songs of different years — all of these blending with more abstract noise material that shapes the piece. Doubling the windows, the six repeated constructions of metal frames and glass sheets create an additional architectural layer — a visual, poetic simulation as a canvas for representing the core idea.
The chattering sound of the six glass sheets blended with surrounding noises, the transparent constructions subtly expanded the architecture of the atrium. GOST 111-35 seemed to be naturally embedded within the space, inviting the audience to discover and engage with it live. Thus, the setting of the installation presented an ambient piece of art that is neither exposed, nor is it utterly invisible.
Artists: Anton Kuryshev, Andrey Guryanov
Duration: 24/7
iii.
LARGO MA NON TANTO
"Largo ma non tanto" is a short film by Alexandra Karelina about a journey across an unfamiliar space, where architecture and music – static and moving – meet. The film was commissioned by Music Space Architecture and was first shown at the ZIL Cultural Center.
A group of artists was invited to think about how both spatial and sonic experiences could be traced, mixed and subsequently represented in the frame of the film screen. The video was shot in Japan by the film’s director, Alexandra Karelina. The music was created collaboratively by the composer and improvisor Darya Zvezdina, and electronic/noise musician Alexey Borisov. The film is narrated in Italian, with fragments of the "Travel Diary of Luigi Pelli of Aranno from Saint Petersburg to Lugano in 1829", prepared by the architectural photographer Yuri Palmin. In an illusionary space of unexpected resonances, knitted together by unrelated elements, "Largo ma non tanto" foregrounds the unstable object of the viewer’s personal reflection.
Directing, Camera, Edit: Alexandra Karelina
Producer: Sasha Elina
Music: Darya Zvezdina, Alexey Borisov
Sound: Alexandra Karelina, Darya Zvezdina
Text Editor: Yuri Palmin
Voice: Filippo Valoti-Alebardi
Sound Mastering: Alexandr Khokhlov
Duration: 21 minutes
iV.
YOUR BODY IS A COLONY
The performance for solo body, stethoscope microphones, live feedback, infrasound and live electronics that explores the body as a receiver of sonic frequencies and as a resonant space.
Composer: Cameron Graham (UK)
Performer: Anastasia Tolchneva
Duration: 120 minutes
FULL PROGRAMME:
1. "Spatial composition #3.Х" by Vladimir Gorlinsky.
2. "GOST 111-35" installation by Anton Kuryshev and Andrey Guryanov (throughout the festival).
3. Film screening of "Largo ma non tanto" by Aleksandra Karelina, with a music performance.
4. Lecture by Sergei Sitar "Music of the Spheres and the Semiosphere".
5. Lecture-dialogue by Yuri Palmin and Vladimir Gorlinsky "Inhuman Architecture".
6. Lecture by Anton Gorlenko "Roughly 19 billion seconds remain".
7. Lecture by Cameron Graham "The Sonic Body".
8. Conference with 10 presentations selected in the open-call.
9. "Your Body is a Colony" performance by Cameron Graham (UK).
10. Film screening of "Untitled" (1993) by Alexander Brodsky.
