Text by CLOT Magazine
The exhibition Sounds / Codes / Images: Audio Experimentation in Visual Arts is a historical tour of art that aims to represent the audio experience from the age of abstraction to today. It reflects on significant movements in acoustic experimentation in the sphere of visual art, showcasing nearly 70 artists whose work involves a variety of formats and media such as abstract visuals, pictorial scores, sonic installations, resonant objects, and multi-media projections.
Exploring past and modern practices, the exhibit intends to demonstrate the different forms sound can take and how it can become an object possessing colour and shape or even be a part of physical motion. It delves into the psychology of sound and deconstructs the scientific features that influence its physical appearance.
While the exhibition centres on Czech and Czechoslovak art, it also incorporates numerous works by international creatives that have pushed the boundaries of creative experimentation and have had a substantial impact on local artists. One of the highlights of these is John Cage. Among the most revolutionary avant-garde artists of the 20th century, Cage pioneered indeterminacy in music. His experimentation in the audio medium has paved the way for a lot of modern conceptual art. The exhibition especially focuses on the leading figures in the contemporary art world that have transformed our views of experimental art on a local or global scale.
Sounds / Codes / Images: Audio Experimentation in Visual Arts is part of the programme Sonic Circuits, which constitutes a number of shows and events held at the Stone Bell House, Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace and public areas around Prague. The programme aims to introduce audiences to the multidimensional Czech art scene with works investigating sound using visual and performance art, physics, ecology, sociology and philosophy.
Sounds / Codes / Images: Audio Experimentation in Visual Arts is open to the public until October 13, 2019, at the Stone Bell House in Prague.
