Untitled 12

Installation

Year | 2021

Materials | Mechanics, motors, foam boards, mic stands

Concept | Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri

Mechanics | Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri and Pe Lang

Papalexandri’s practice ‘‘stretches’’ basic principles of how sound is produced and how we explore resonances and sounds, by suggesting a new paradigm, which can be thought of as “programming” with material. By awakening micro-sounds within materials through physical interactions like friction, the work creates minimal but rather complex organic sounds and textures. The sound installation proposes a refined and focused exploration of everyday materials and sounds carefully shaped and placed at different distances, and without any post-processing.

swarm

Sound Kinetic Sculpture

Year | 2020-21

Materials | Motor, fiberglass, mechanics

supported by Cornell Biennial Award 2020

A sound and kinetic sculpture by Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri and Pe Lang (supported by the 4th Cornell Biennial, 2020, Swarm Award). This work consists of a swarm of almost identical sound objects: fiberglass shells driven by a motor belt pulley system and placed at calculated distances so that they produce unpredictable movements and sounds while in motion. Sonic parameters such as rhythm, pitch, and timbre are determined here by the shape and behaviour of these materials.

About the artists

Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri (b. 1974 / Greece) is a composer and sound artist based in Ithaca, NY and Wald, Switzerland.  She is known for her sound kinetic constructions that she develops independently and together with Swiss artist Pe Lang. Papalexandri’s work interweaves sound art, composition, visual objects, instrument making and performance while exploring the factors that link these art forms. Her work has been exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Basel, MuDA museum of digital art, Zurich; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Museum of Musical Instruments Berlin; ISEA, Hong Kong; San Francisco Art Institute; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Transmediale, Berlin; Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland, Donaueschingen Festival and Venice Biennale of Architecture. She has been commissioned by Neue Vocalsolisten, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Mosaik, MaerzMusik, Japan Media Art, Ultraschall, ECLAT and Archipel, among others.  The recipient of the Humboldt-University of Berlin: Cluster of Excellence International Fellowship (2015), Papalexandri has been awarded a ProHelvetia grant, an Ernst Von Siemens Foundation Commission, the Berlin Senate Sound Art Grant, the Swedish Arts Council Composition Grant, the Berlin Senate Composition Grant, the International IMPULS Composition Award and the Dan David Prize for Contemporary Music. Papalexandri has been in residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, the Villa Concordia, Humboldt-University, the Instrument Inventors Institute and St. John’s College, University of Oxford.  Papalexandri is an Assistant Professor of Composition at Cornell University. She is currently collaborating with Guy Hoffman and the International Contemporary Ensemble on a large-scale AI, kinetic and sound project titled ‘Human and Machine Improvisation in Action’ supported by a Cornell NYC Visioning initiative grant.

photo | Pe Lang

Pe Lang (b. 1974 / Switzerland) is known for creating minimal kinetic artworks and installations throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. In a constant process of gaining and losing control, Lang‘s kinetic installation engages a refined and focused exploration of the interaction between the kinetic, the visual, and the sonic. In 2007, Lang received a one-year research residency fellowship at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology CSEM. Lang was twice honored with the prestigious swiss art award (2009 and 2010). Among other awards, Lang received the mediaprojects award in 2005, 2008, and 2011 from the Swiss Federal Department of Culture. Lang has received commissions by Swiss Science Center Technorama, the Villa Empain – Boghossian Foundation in Brussels, and the Exploratorium in San Francisco, as well as his works, can be found in private, museum and foundation collections such as the EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, the Borusan Contemporary in Istanbul, the Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception in San Francisco, the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art in Michigan, Futurium in Berlin, HeK Haus der elektronischen Künste in Basel and the Artphilein Foundation in Liechtenstein. Exhibitions of Lang’s work include Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; Gallery Denise René, Kunsthal; Rotterdam; MuDA museum of digital art, Zurich; ZKM, Germany; HeK Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel; Fondation Vasarely, France; Kunsthalle Bern; Martin- Gropius-Bau, Berlin; Centro de Arte Santa Museum Mónica, Barcelona; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Art Plus Museum, Donaueschingen; the InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo; Art Basel, Basel.

photo | Christian Etter

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