New publication:
Soundtrack for an Exhibition
Mathieu Copeland, Susan Stenger,
Tony Conrad, John Armleder,
Gustav Metzger, Steven Parrino
and Kristian Levring
Launch June 2009
Co-publishers Forma, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon and Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Zürich are pleased to present Soundtrack for an Exhibition, a significant landmark publication documenting and extending the concepts, works and historical and contemporary contexts presented in an exhibition of the same name, conceived by Mathieu Copeland.The exhibition was formed around the slowly evolving juxtaposition of three distinct elements: a music composition by Susan Stenger incorporating contributions from internationally acclaimed musicians and based on a song form ‘exploded’ to last 96 days; the screening – on a huge scale – of the entire footage shot in the making of The King is Alive by Dogme95 filmmaker Kristian Levring; and an exhibition of chemically changing paintings – Slow Rot works by the late American painter Steven Parrino, and large-scale commissioned Puddle Paintings and Pour Paintings created in situ by Swiss artist John Armleder.
The soundtrack, paintings and film’s individual and collective evolution achieved what curator Mathieu Copeland describes as the ‘fragmentary unity’ that defines the entire exhibition, wherein it acts as an abstract structure that constantly re-contextualises the artworks without perverting their nature.
In a large 12″ format, the 160-page hardback with 39 black and white and 26 full colour images includes, in English and French, an introductory essay by Mathieu Copeland; discussions between Copeland, Susan Stenger and Tony Conrad (composer, filmmaker and musician; co-founder of The Dream Syndicate with John Cale and La Monte Young); between Gustav Metzger (the leading figure of Auto-Destructive-Art), John Armleder and Copeland; and an interview with the filmmaker, Kristian Levring.
The publication reproduces the entire score of the soundtrack, feature film stills, installation images and an audio DVD of specially condensed/remixed material from the soundtrack, entitled Sound Works for an Exhibition, composed by Susan Stenger with contributions from Stenger, Robert Poss, Alan Vega, Alexander Hacke, F.M. Einheit, Kim Gordon, Mika Vainio, Bruce Gilbert, Ulrich Krieger, Warren Ellis, Jim White, Jennifer Hoyston, Andria Degens and Spider Stacy.
The book launch will take place on 15 June 2009. For details of the launch please contact Róisín Stimpson, Communications Manager, on rs@forma.org.uk or 0044 (0) 20 7456 7823.
To purchase the book visit pressebooks.forma.org.uk
Soundtrack for an Exhibition
ISBN: 978-0-9548288-4-4
Supported by Arts Council England
