From Dick Raaijmakers to Anouk Kellner: Hear Here honours 60 years of sound art
Some personal thoughts on my upcoming sound art exhibition (part 2)
Hey again!
As we get closer to the opening of Hear Here (April 24th), the STUK team is all hands on deck right now. We are finalising the technical preparations on site and the first artists are arriving, mainly from Belgium and the Netherlands to start with, as they live closer and can travel back and forth before the opening. Our international guests, from Adam Basanta from Canada to Rudy Decelière from Switzerland, will arrive next week.
Behind the scenes
Here are some random sneak peeks from the last week’s set-up:
Edwin van der Heide
Luckily the weather has been nice up till now :-)
Anouk Kellner
Organ pipes + long reverb of the baroque KADOC chapel = match made in heaven
Mariska De Groot
Hanging her first ‘BROM’ in an abandoned school
Aernoudt Jacobs
Preparing for the premiere of his new sound-and-light installation at BAC ART LAB
Dick Raaijmakers
The iconic Ideofoon has arrived! Traveling all the way from Kunstmuseum Den Haag
Following my previous newsletter, talking about the origins of Hear Here, I now zoom in on the artworks themselves.
As mentioned, Hear Here consists of 15 artworks spread across 9 heritage sites. See this map on the Hear Here website.
Brand new sound creations …
Of course, Hear Here gives today’s sound artists the opportunity to create new works. Els Viaene, Aernoudt Jacobs, Anouk Kellner, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Lucy Andrews: a third of the exhibition consists of newly created creations by mainly Belgian based artists.
I am very existed about seeing and hearing these works for the first time …
… without losing sight of the historical perspective
However, there is also an important focus on historical sound art, more specifically on presenting and 're-producing' sound artworks from the period 1970 to 2010.
We are showing and re-creating new versions by influential pioneers such as Dick Raaijmakers (1970), Christina Kubisch (1989), Edwin van der Heide (2006) and Susan Philipsz (2008).
Why the historical perspective?
Because I think it’s very important to continue showing the pioneers to new generations, and keep on updating these early works on a technical and logistic level so they don’t get lost, forgotten, broken, incomplete over time.
In this respect, the coming few years will be decisive, as many of the pioneers (from the 1970s and 1980s) are now of advanced age, have deceased, and sometimes their works are not always well managed or archived.
Even a relatively recent work by a mid-career artist like Franziska Windisch from 2017 needs a technical revision for this festival, showing how quickly sound art can become dated on a technological level.
I think Kunstmuseum Den Haag does a great job archiving and restoring the works by Dick Raaijmakers, such as Ideofoon I which has recently been restored by LI-MA and Bram Vreven.
On Friday 16th of May (11h30 at BAC ART LAB) we are hosting a bunch of talks and discussions on this topic of archiving and presenting historical sound art works, with Linnea Semmerling, Kees Tazelaar, Carsten Seiffarth, Giulia Vismara, Edwin van der Heide and Leonie Persyn. These talks are a part of hear Here Live (see below) and presented by the Flemish-Dutch network ‘Neighbouring Frequencies’ (Kunstenpunt, FIBER, De Brakke Grond, STUK).
Don’t forget the live events
Hear Here is more than a 6-week long exhibition. There’s also a series of live events with talks, workshops and performances. An overview.
24 April: Hear Here Opening / Maria Chavez
Official opening event including guided tours, drinks, speeches and a turntable performance by Maria Chavez
25 April: Workshop Maria Chavez: abstract turntablism (sold out)
Turntablist Maria Chávez gives an introduction on the use of a vinyl player as a musical instrument. Full booked!
16 & 17 May: Hear Here Live
A bunch of live performances and talks presented by STUK and M Leuven (the main museum for old and contemporary art in Leuven). It will be focusing on the intersection between sound art, experimental music and visual arts, with performances by fantastic international artists such as Mark Fell & Limpe Fuchs, Cevdet Erek, Nazanin Noori, Leila Bordreuil and ØKSE (with Mette Rasmussen), and new creations by Belgian and Dutch artists like Vica Pacheco, Mihalis Shammas, De Zwerm (aifoon), Gwendolyn Lootens & Saif Al Qaissy.
Check the full live programme here.
3 June: Let’s Talk Leuven: Els Viaene
And last but not least: an inspiring artist talk by Els Viaene about her creation ‘Figures Of Thought’ and her artistic research on the ephemeral phenomenon of sound.
So, that’s pretty much it :-)
Hope you enjoyed reading my newsletters. Let me know your thoughts, and don’t hesitate to send me ideas or suggestions.
Hope to see some of you in Leuven soon!
Gilles
Hear Here 2025
Walk along sound art & heritage in Leuven
24 April > 9 June 2025
Website
Opening event: Thursday 24 April
Including guided tours, drinks, speeches and a turntable performance by Maria Chavez
Free with registration: click here