In the third season of Vanish gallery activities, the main themes and inspirations come from music and sound art circuits. From music, VANISH borrows communication tools. First, the score. It is pasted on the side panels of the gallery, where visual art works were in previous seasons. Second, VANISH goes on tours, one of the most emblematic ways of spreading music. However, the gallery does not serve as a means of transportation for traveling musicians. Equipped with the score, it moves from one location to another in quest of artists willing to interpret it in the gallery. Performances are meticulously documented—audio and video—and published as a bootleg album of the tour, the third hint to the music world. VANISH also learns from sound art, especially from its attention to the physicality of detail. In the first place, detail of the room. There is a long tradition of sound art investigations into the acoustics of galleries. Sizes, shapes, surfaces, angles, materials—physical aspects of the room are not merely contexts of sound pieces; they are integral parts of their sonic content. In the third season, we want to hear how all these acoustical features work in a gallery room that has four wheels, an engine, and a camshaft. We also want to find ways to document this sonic life of the gallery in a manner that does justice to its materiality. Bringing it all together makes the concept for this season of VANISH clear. It cannot be anything but circumnavigation. Going in circles. Loops. The gallery circles around Europe. The sound bounces around the gallery’s pipes, electric circuits, and body. The score keeps on being interpreted again and again. We carry on following the details of these envelopes. In physics, circulation encompasses random vectors that emerge when the main current is being examined. We try to do the same.
Season 24 is curated by Michał Libera - freelance music curator, producer and dramatist - and Konrad Smoleński - artist, musician and founder of Vanish gallery.
The score installed on the side panels of Vanish was prepared by Anton Lukoszevieze—virtuoso cellist, founder and leader of Apartment House, intermedia artist, composer, and author of scores. His work alludes to the main themes and threads of the season, including mobility, circumnavigation, loops, car mechanics, maps, architecture, and acoustics. Remaining in line with a long tradition of open artworks—pieces coming into being only in interpretation—it rests on techniques worked out in experimental music (graphic notations) and visual arts (Fluxus event scores). The score is suitable for interpretation not only by musicians and sound artists. It is abstract enough to be rendered by artists from any field, including visual arts, dance, and literature. Artists are encouraged to come up with their very individual approach to the score so that the performances are incommensurable.
The fuel costs of tour number one of season 24 are being covered by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polish Culture in the World programme.