Do you hear us? An exhibition on silence, noise, and listen

© Dorian Sari | From left to right: Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Silent (2016), installation with HD, 7:00’. Miriam Cahn, schweigende schwester (1980), pencil on white paper, installation: 21×190 cm. Dorian Sari, Breakneck (2021), rubber balloons, various sizes.Installation view at Istituto Svizzero, Roma, 2021 I Ph. Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio

 

From 14 Ottobre 2021 to 30 Gennaio 2022

Rome

Place: Istituto Svizzero

Address: Via Ludovisi 48

Times: Mercoledì e Venerdì: H14:00-18:00 Giovedì: H14:00-20:00 Sabato e Domenica: H11:00-18:00

Ticket price: Registeration at the door. In accordance with current regulations, the public is required to present a Covid Green Certificate at the entrance in order to access the event

Telefono per informazioni: +39 06 420421

E-Mail info: roma@istitutosvizzero.it

Official site: http://www.istitutosvizzero.it


Istituto Svizzero is pleased to present in Rome the group exhibition Do you hear us? which explores the concept of sound in its several aspects. How has our perception of sound changed during the pademic? Can sound generate social and political space? What is the difference between listening and hearing?

Taking these questions as a starting point, the artworks presented, some of which were specifically conceived for the exhibition, explore the meaning of silence, noise and listening as powerful acts of resistance.

The experience of the pandemic changed our perception of the world. Thinking back over the lockdown weeks here in Rome, I remember in particular the shift in soundscape. The city became silent and, in the silence, I suddenly heard other things: the screeching of hungry seagulls (which, I read, feed on the leftovers from restaurants in cities) and the drone of police helicopters over rooftops. Silence, noise and listening always have a social if not political dimension. The sounds, yes, the noise, that surround us always create a certain social space. Silencing someone is an act of violence; at the same time, staying silent can be a resistant gesture, and listening can be claimed as an active political act that gives space to unheard, neglected voices. «Hearing,» the composer Pauline Oliveros writes, «happens involuntarily, listening, on the other hand, is a voluntary process that produces culture through training and experience». In Italian, the verb ‘sentire’ means not only to listen, but also to feel. The group exhibition Do you hear us? at the Istituto Svizzero in Rome aims to trace these things. In doing so, the artistic works, some of which were conceived especially for the exhibition, and some of which pre-existed, explore a multi-layered theme. The invited artists address the listening of migrant voices and memories and the meaning of music and singing in this context, show us how silence can be a powerful performative act of resistance, invoke the roots of listening as an active political strategy in the feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s, or remind us how quickly we overhear certain voices in the constant noise of social media.

Gioia Dal Molin, Head curator Istituto Svizzero August 2021

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