Jens Reulecke presents "SEEING VOICES"

Jens Reulecke
seeing voices
a performative installation

May 7- 27, 2007
(please note the different starting times for the varying dates)

may 7 - vernissage : seeing voices -7pm
may 11- performance : step-by-step - 7pm
may 15- performance : known by touch - 9 pm
may 19 -performance : only seen in the moment - 9 pm

To see with open ears and to listen with wide open eyes to the city of New York means to perceive emotionally. The quality of the air, light, sounds, and colors, its material presence and textures.

Whenever a man finds himself in an architectural space, he changes the architecture into a vessel for his senses. The rhythm of his steps on the ground, the experience of width and narrowness, the possibilities and constraints of movement, and the perception of light and darkness create a unique presence.

My own emotional state reveals what kind of space I am in. This emotional approach allows me to experience the corporeal presence of the city with my own body. At the same time, it is the base for my artistic interventions.

I am connecting my body with this space of sounds, this space filled with the pulsation of its inhabitants and their surroundings. As a result, my own body becomes a stage of creative visibility.

In order to create seeing voices, I will use the city itself as a ‘living laboratory’. Rather than taking an artwork with me to present, I will get a sense of New York’s urban dynamism and vitality and capture the essence of the more lyric conceptions of the city—this urban drama.

The first step is to collect all sorts of city traces: taking photos of various situations, including architecture, street life, people, parks, homes, objects and myself in the midst of it; recording all varieties of sounds of the city and its people’s voices. While exploring the city, I will collect objects, whatever seems relevant to me, possibly trash, with the idea of integrating it into the work. Another level of the research touches on the people I meet. I can imagine cooperating with some of them in my performances. That could mean involving other artists in the project, like musicians, actors, dancers or people with other occupations. As my New York archive grows, there will come the point when I have to decide what to use and what to discard. What stays will be used to build my city collage seeing voices. Verses that might come to me as I try to grapple with the material will be added to the composition.

Another important aspect of my concept is related to my impression of ‘Le petit Versailles’. To me, this garden appears like a ‘sacred place’, surrounded by all sorts of occupied and besieged spaces in stone and concrete. It appears to me like a window into a different world that exists in another realm. Getting in tune with the heartbeat of this place is something I am very interested in, since I am always looking for spaces that inspire me to give way to silent happenings—to allow something to reveal itself almost out of nothing. Like the feeling when seeing something before you can hear it, or hearing it before you can see it. The appearance of such a hidden and mysterious moment is what I am looking for.

I am interested in gaining awareness of another taste, complementary to the clamorous, crowded, dynamic, hectic city—experiencing this for myself first, and then communicating it to the public.