Lundahl & Seitl
09 Mar - 28 May 2017
Lundahl & Seitl, Symphony of a Missing Room, 2014
Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photo: Julian Abrams © the artists
Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photo: Julian Abrams © the artists
LUNDAHL & SEITL
New Originals
09 Mach – 28 May 2017
C = Collector V = Visitor
C: It is now time to enter the stage where you will assist in recreating this collection into new kinds of objects.
C: Are you ready to proceed?
V: Yes
C: Are you ready to truly experience what you have seen?
V: Yes
C: To recreate them as if they were your own creations?
V: Yes
C: To eternalize them into the collection of the New Originals?
V: Yes
(Text message exchange, excerpt from New Originals, 2017)
The Swedish artist duo Lundahl & Seitl consisting of Christer Lundahl (*1978) and Martina Seitl (*1979) are known for their performative audio works and situation specific artworks which they have been creating since 2003 and which put their focus on the perception of the individual visitor.
Visitors to Kunstmuseum Bonn can expect to enjoy an unusual experience in which they are separated from the tangible world by wearing headphones and sightless goggles. In the first stage the visitors are led through the exhibition spaces by text Messages sent to their provided cell phones from an unknown sender called "the Collector". Thus, they getto know the exhibited works ranging from paintings by Max Ernst - a pioneer of painted virtual worlds - to a contemporary series of maps by Stephan Huber in an entirely new way.
The exhibition New Originals by Swedish artist duo Lundahl & Seitl is a complex installation with an interactive multi-sensory audio walk at its core. In their work, the two artists discuss fundamental questions of cognitive science: How are images produced in our brain and how do we remember them? How "real" are our constructed memories and how easily can perception be controlled and manipulated?
After finding the entrance to a hidden corridor in the exhibition, the visitors enter stage two, which does not involve any physical objects. Guided by the voice of "the Collector" as well as external stimuli in the form of synchronized light and three-dimensional sound, the visitors are encouraged to recollect previously viewed artworks and recreate them inside their minds. In this virtual space of possibilities, we have to make use of all our senses and our sensitivity, and, most of all, learn not to only trust our eyes. The artists invite us to reflect on the origin of artworks and the development of memories in broader terms: What role does our established notion of the "original" and the "copy" play when an artwork unfolds directly in the visitors' consciousness?
With New Originals, Kunstmuseum Bonn is taking a new approach in its current exhibition practice. The exhibition does not only put to question the term of the "original" by creating an exciting and at times paradoxical dialog between selected works from the museum's collection and edited copies of them, but also by interpreting anew the medium of the exhibition and the visitors' role in it beyond defined museum standards.
New Originals
09 Mach – 28 May 2017
C = Collector V = Visitor
C: It is now time to enter the stage where you will assist in recreating this collection into new kinds of objects.
C: Are you ready to proceed?
V: Yes
C: Are you ready to truly experience what you have seen?
V: Yes
C: To recreate them as if they were your own creations?
V: Yes
C: To eternalize them into the collection of the New Originals?
V: Yes
(Text message exchange, excerpt from New Originals, 2017)
The Swedish artist duo Lundahl & Seitl consisting of Christer Lundahl (*1978) and Martina Seitl (*1979) are known for their performative audio works and situation specific artworks which they have been creating since 2003 and which put their focus on the perception of the individual visitor.
Visitors to Kunstmuseum Bonn can expect to enjoy an unusual experience in which they are separated from the tangible world by wearing headphones and sightless goggles. In the first stage the visitors are led through the exhibition spaces by text Messages sent to their provided cell phones from an unknown sender called "the Collector". Thus, they getto know the exhibited works ranging from paintings by Max Ernst - a pioneer of painted virtual worlds - to a contemporary series of maps by Stephan Huber in an entirely new way.
The exhibition New Originals by Swedish artist duo Lundahl & Seitl is a complex installation with an interactive multi-sensory audio walk at its core. In their work, the two artists discuss fundamental questions of cognitive science: How are images produced in our brain and how do we remember them? How "real" are our constructed memories and how easily can perception be controlled and manipulated?
After finding the entrance to a hidden corridor in the exhibition, the visitors enter stage two, which does not involve any physical objects. Guided by the voice of "the Collector" as well as external stimuli in the form of synchronized light and three-dimensional sound, the visitors are encouraged to recollect previously viewed artworks and recreate them inside their minds. In this virtual space of possibilities, we have to make use of all our senses and our sensitivity, and, most of all, learn not to only trust our eyes. The artists invite us to reflect on the origin of artworks and the development of memories in broader terms: What role does our established notion of the "original" and the "copy" play when an artwork unfolds directly in the visitors' consciousness?
With New Originals, Kunstmuseum Bonn is taking a new approach in its current exhibition practice. The exhibition does not only put to question the term of the "original" by creating an exciting and at times paradoxical dialog between selected works from the museum's collection and edited copies of them, but also by interpreting anew the medium of the exhibition and the visitors' role in it beyond defined museum standards.