La voix humaine
25 January–30 March 2014
Opening: 24 January, 7pm
Kunstverein Munich
Galeriestraße 4
80539 Munich
Artists: Tyler Coburn, Cécile B. Evans, Kalup Linzy, Erica Scourti, Cally Spooner, Frances Stark, Amelie von Wulffen
The exhibition La voix humaine at Kunstverein Munich features works by artists that offer contemporary perspectives on themes within Francis Poulenc’s 1958 operatic adaptation of Jean Cocteau’s one-act play of the same name. In this libretto, a woman pleads with her ex-lover over a phone in a conversation constantly interrupted by a bad connection. The voice on the other end of the line however remains inaudible throughout, leaving the woman to appear as if she is conversing with herself. In particular, the exhibition takes this technically mediated aspect of the drama to explore how heightened forms of affect are shaped by today’s media-saturated society; from public exposure of emotionality in need of an audience to a consequential role technology plays in facilitating intimate relationships, ultimately bringing human subjectivity into a direct correlation between user and interface.
Two new commissions in La voix humaine amplify the delivery of emotion through different modes of address. The individually hand-drawn pages that make up Amelie von Wulffen’s phantasmagorical comic strip At the cool table—in which the artist parodies the anxieties of a mid-career female artist of the ‘old school’ in a new world of high-velocity performance, professionalism, connectivity and sexual escapism—are roughly illustrated to approximate the direct form of speech. Cally Spooner on the other hand has rehearsed several monologues together with opera singers in Munich using the operatic style of recitative for her performance Damning Evidence Illicit Behaviour Seemingly Insurmountable Great Sadness Terminated In Any Manner. Rather than using classical scores however, Spooner’s libretto is sourced from the brute language of online comment threads.
Existing and adapted pieces by Tyler Coburn, Cécile B. Evans, Erica Scourti and Frances Stark meanwhile enquire into the dependent relationship between affect and Web 2.0 user-generated content and interfaces, such as voice recognition programs, social media and online advertising. As such, these works make a feature of how far a user is assimilated and mediated by technical and commercial conditions; stretched to points where technology flattens emotion, corrects speech, and is able to create responsive online personas.
A publication of Amelie von Wulffen’s At the cool table will be available during the exhibition in both German and English and is published by Kunstverein München and Portikus, Frankfurt with Koenig Books. Additionally supported by Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna and Giò Marconi, Milan.
Public program
Cally Spooner’s performance Damning Evidence Illicit Behaviour Seemingly Insurmountable Great Sadness Terminated In Any Manner will take place every Sunday at 3pm in the Kunstverein during the exhibition.
Friday 24 January, 7pm
Book launch of Amelie von Wullfen’s publication At the cool table
Sunday 26 January, 2pm
Public tour with Exhibition Assistant Nina Gscheider
Tuesday 4 February, 7pm
Public tour with Director Bart van der Heide
Thursday 6 March, 7pm
Public tour with Curator Saim Demircan
Wednesday 19 March, 7pm
The Dead Letter & The Living Voice, a talk by Curator Mark Beasley
Additionally supported by
