Multiplicity – listening to Brussels
Solo research exhibition by Justin Bennett.
From April until November 2017 Justin Bennett was resident at Overtoon in Brussels, a platform for production, distribution and research of sound art, installations and experimental media art. The goal of the residency was to investigate the acoustic territories of the city of Brussels. Territories of language: voices, narratives. Territories of security: signals, announcements and sirens. Territories of work. Territories of birds and other animals. Underground territories: the reverberations and resonances of the tunnels and passageways of the city.
The city of Brussels fascinated him – because of the stratification of its history, the multicultural aspects, the labyrinthine urban structure with large underground tunnel networks and 19th century passages. As well as Brussels’ ambiguity as capital, as a collection of villages with different ethnic characters, as a melting pot of languages, as the bureaucratic centre of Europe.
The research used three parallel approaches. Firstly, Bennett created devices for active listening: a microphone inside a trumpet or a wooden stethoscope, for example. These devices allow for the acoustic manipulation of sounds in a combination of listening, improvisation and field recording. Secondly, walks through the city, solo or with friends or strangers are recorded and narrative paths are traced out. Thirdly, the visual and spatial forms of the city are explored in a series of drawings and sculptures. The results from these three approaches intertwine and feedback within each other.
Justin Bennett shows the first results of his research, in the form of objects, sound and drawings. The ongoing research, Multiplicity, will result in an audio work in public space to be presented in 2018.
Stroom Den Haag (The Hague, NL)
11/11/2017 – 07/01/2018
Location: Hogewal 1-9, The Hague
Open: Mon-Fri: 11:00-17:00; Sat-Sun: 12:00-17:00