The New Trade
20 June–26 August 2012
Museu Coleção Berardo
Praça do Império
1449-003 Lisbon, Portugal
Open daily, 10–7pm
Free admission
T +351 213 612 878
F +351 213 612 570
museuberardo [at] museuberardo.pt
www.thenewtrade.museuberardo.pt
Works by: Alvin Lucier, Black Dice, Charlemagne Palestine, Edgard Varèse, Erik Satie, Excepter, Fala Mariam, Gavin Bryars, Jandek, John Cage, Le Corbusier, Leon Theremin, Lou Reed, Luigi Russolo, Marcel Duchamp, Maurice Martenot, Olivier Messiaen, Sei Miguel, William Basinski, Yves Klein
Organised in two parts, The New Trade puts in perspective a series of artistic works mainly focused on music, transposed to a museological reality, giving them an exhibitive dimension.
In the first section, which brings together a selection of works starting from the late 19th century, The New Trade physically materialises and exhibits pieces that are part of a history which runs parallel to the one of the artistic production created for the art market and collectors. This retrospective section presents a variety of compositional vocabularies, unified by the singularity and purity of their vision and materialisation, albeit the diverse typologies of execution of the works: from performance and documentation, to works designed to exist as music installations, to devices that can be activated throughout the exhibition.
The artists in the second section of the exhibition, consisting of new contemporary works, are all primarily musicians. By way of their wide understanding not only of their original craft, but also of the possibilities of its extension, through the manifolds of its objectual, scenic, and poetic materialisation, linked to the point of origin of their work, these artists use these visionary capabilities to create a different kind of artwork, one that envisions a place in the archetypal morphology of the current exhibition space. Acoustics, temporality, mobility, or scale are reinvigorated as subjects and materials. And, above all, the music-object, calibrated to the museological universe—its space and its participants—takes on a new life.
From the viewpoint of the visitor, two possible routes are suggested. One, taking on a narrative sequence that threads through the great majority of the works presented, will function on a circular timed schedule. For the pieces that are only activated in performance there will be a handout programme available.
The other route offers the visitor a freer itinerary, with the option for a solitary experience of the exhibition at their own pace. Audio devices with the sound for the various works in the exhibition will be available to the public. In addition to having quality sound, visitors can take on personalised control over the duration and volume of the sound in their experience of each object.
Curated by Filho Único.
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