Photo: 1 - 10 "still/silent" at the Art Festival "Ostrale 010" in Dresden, 10.9.2010 and 11 - 19 at the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava in Venice, 2009. Photos by Uwe Bohrer, Erika Matsunami, Roland Urban

Video still/silent 2010, video shot by Roland Urban
Video on vimeo
Video on vimeo 2

10x silk fabrics, petri dishes and whitewash on the floor (the room ca.216m2 at the Ostrale)

Project description “still/silent” 2010 – Audiovisual performance in the installation at the Ostrale (centre for contemporary art), Dresden

The project “still/silent” 2010 at the OSTRALE (centre for contemporary art, Dresden) from 27 August to 19 September 2010 within the scope of the OSTRALE’010 exhibit programme - OSTRALE.xtra directed by Andrea Hilger and Dr. Martin Müller.

About the history of Ostrale: One of Europe’s first big factory like butcher’s was located at these premises. The slaughterhouse by municipal architect Hans Erlwein consisted of 68 individual buildings and opened on the 19th of August 1910 after five years of construction. It existed up until 1945 when the city of Dresden was bombed by American aircraft. Although they are not directly comparable, Dresden and Hiroshima, where the peace memorial Atomic Bomb Dome (原爆ドーム gembaku dōmu) is located, are monuments of our history. Today the remaining historical buildings of the old slaughterhouse are listed and used by Messe Dresden and Ostrale. With its extensive range of activities, Ostrale facilitates the preservation and renovation of the site for cultural purposes, as well as international exhibitions and performances, artist camps, workshops and lectures.

About the Ostrale location and its relation to the “still/silent” project: The history of Ostrale is a journey through time from the memory of the location, to the topological recollection at the core of the “still/silent” project.

About the Ostrale location and its relation to the project: “’still/silent’ is a journey from places of memory to topologies of remembrance; memories produced at certain locations, enriching life as much as they constantly destroy it, slowly transcend themselves into remembrances – the protection of impressions and the impulse against stimuli to find life in balance. ‘Still/Silen’t liberates the one (the self) from both personal and over-personal experiences.”
(From the Text „Places of Memory, Topologies of Remembrance – On „Still/silent““ by Miya Yoshida)

“Still/silent” at the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava in Venice, 2009: As part five of the “still/silent” performance, the canals of Venice are an emblematic form of transfer (or allegoric image) for freedom and hope, to which the doors of the canals are opened at the end of the performance at the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava. At the same time, these canals ‘overlap’ Hiroshima’s Motoyasu River. Water is a metaphor for all living things originating from the ocean, and for the “silence” of life.

“Still/silent” at the Ostrale in Dresden, 2010: An installation similar to that presented in Venice is planned here, with layers of silk fabric installed in the room and around 1,000 water filled petri dishes spread out on the floor, which the videos will be projected onto.

The “still/silent” installation integrates a live performance and mixed media installation, and has been conceived as a time-based art form situated in between different media (intermedia). It is an extension of the audiovisual installation insofar that an element of time (live performance) is added to the acoustic and visual elements. Real-time is readapted and reconstructed in the room later on, thus allowing the “still/silent” project to be passed on from one location to another.

The “still/silent” project

“still/silent” is a serial project developed in 2007 in collaboration with the Greek composer and pianist Antonis Anissegos in Berlin. We worked as an artists’ collective called OIO up until 2009 and “still/silent” was conceived and performed at various exhibitions and festivals in different locations. In the part of “still/silent” (2010) project the improvisation's performance was in a collaboration with Chris Dahlgren, a Berlin-based American composer (jazz) and jazzbassist.

In its four acts, the “still/silent” project does not primarily focus on the subject of peace, but uses it as a recurring motif. At musical and visual levels, the third act of “still/silent” portrays it as a beneficial state of tranquillity and calmness, as the absence of noise and turmoil. This work is a piece of audiovisual poetry, a composition consisting of images and sound. All four acts (act 1: empty city, act 2: day of the city, act 3: still/silent, act 4: A.I.) are engineered with 2-channel video and 4-channel audio and performed in the installation. Newly recorded sound material from the respective locations is also mixed into the performance. Together with the instrument (contrabass), the audio and visual performance for “still/silent” (2010) is based on live electronics and visuals with tonal, musical and visual interaction. The performance is simultaneously recorded and with the entire audiovisual installation, this recording is later reconstructed in the respective room/location.

The audiovisual installation “still/silent” integrates a sound performance (live) and mixed media installation, and has been conceived as a time-based art form situated in between different media (intermedia). It is an extension of the audiovisual installation insofar that the element of time (live performance) is added to the acoustic and visual elements. Realtime is thus readapted and reconstructed in the room later on.

Chris Dahlgren (jazz composer/instrumentalist) – D/USA: contrabass and live electronics
Erika Matsunami (Visual Artist) – D/JP: live mixing videofilm, electroacoustic sound and installation



4 parts 2 ch Video/Sound "still/silent"

DV/color/stereo/2007-2008/11 min
concept, video: Erika Matsunami
sound: Antonis Anissegos

Part 1: empty city
Part 2: day of the city
Part 3: still/silent
Part 4: A.I.

Four parts of the audiovisual installation/performance

Duration of the performance: approx. 50 min.

Performance/Exhibition: