Silence.

FONDAZIONE SANDRETTO RE REBAUDENGO presents the second exhibition in their one-year programme linked to the theme of the Environment. The group exhibition, Silence. Listen to the show, is curated by Francesco Bonami and will run at the Fondazione’s centre for contemporary art in Via Modane, Turin from 1 June to 23 September 2007.

The exhibition invites visitors to isolate themselves and embark on an acoustic voyage across the exhibition halls of the Fondazione. All works in the show will be accessible through earphones that visitors wear for the whole length of the exhibition, creating a space that is apparently silent yet in reality invaded by a multiplicity of sounds. Silence. Listen to the show presents fifty works produced from the sixties onwards by acclaimed and emerging international artists, musicians and performers. It is an exhibition where sound is the subject of investigation, examined as a cultural artefact, used as a means of expression and explored as a sphere of aesthetic experience. Different to today’s usual approach to sound art, the exhibition does not really focus on the concept of sound itself, rather it strives to create a symphony of notes and sounds whose origins remain apparent and where sound is the narrator of events in everyday life. The audio and video works, installations and performances in the show provoke many different associations between the visual and audio worlds.

"Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at 50 m.p.h. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them, not as sound effects but as musical instruments." John Cage

Borrowing the title of John Cage’s renowned book, the exhibition highlights the way sounds and noises affect our visual perception of reality. Nowadays, a great majority of people go about their daily lives constantly accompanied by a personally compiled soundtrack on their iPods, which swallows them up, follows their every move and features in every image they see throughout the day.

Cage considered the traffic noise that came up from the Sixth Avenue to his Manhattan loft to be music. Instead today we tend to isolate ourselves, closing out the noises of reality and adding our favourite sounds to the images we like best. Silence. Listen to the show is a reflection on the strange marriage between images and sounds in our contemporary lifestyles.

Cage is therefore an emblematic figure in the exhibition, both for his revolutionary work in the music field and for the great influence that he had on bridging the gap between the disciplines for generations of musicians and artists alike.

Silence. Listen to the show is a multidisciplinary exhibition featuring artists, musicians, writers, composers and film makers who all share an interest in the mundane nature of sound.

A unique part-print part-audio catalogue to the show will be published by Electa (Milan) and will feature texts by Francesco Bonami.

Artists Adel Abdessemed b. 1971 Costantina, Algeria. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany Vito Acconci b. 1940 New York, USA. Lives and works in New York, USA Doug Aitken b. 1968 Redondo Beach, California, USA. Lives and works in Los Angeles, USA Victor Alimpiev b. 1973 Moscow, Russia. Lives and works in Moscow, Russia. Aphex Twin b. 1971 Limerick, Ireland. Lives and works in London, UK. Micol Assael b. 1979 Rome, Italy. Lives and works in Rome, Italy. John Baldessari b. 1931 National City, California, USA. Lives and works in Santa Monica, California, USA. Samuel Beckett b. 1906 Dublin, Ireland. Died 1989 Paris, France. Johanna Billing b. 1973 Jönköping, Sweden. Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. Marcel Broodthaers b. 1924 Brussels, Belgium. Died 1976 Cologne, Germany. John Cage b. 1912 Los Angeles, California, USA. Died 1992 New York, USA Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller b. 1957 & 1960 Brussels, Ontario, Canada. Live and work in Berlin, Germany. Enrico Castellani b. 1930 Castelmassa, Rovigo, Italy. Lives and works in Viterbo, Italy. Martin Creed b. 1968 Wakefield, UK. Lives and works in London, UK. Roberto Cuoghi b. 1973 Modena, Italy. Lives and works in Milan, Italy. Jeremy Deller b. 1966 London, UK. Lives and works in London, UK. Sussan Deyhim b. Teheran, Iran. Lives and works in New York, USA. Trisha Donnelly b. 1974 San Francisco, USA. Lives and works in San Francisco, USA. Ceal Floyer b. 1968 Karachi, Pakistan. Lives and works in London, UK and Berlin, Germany.. Glenn Gould b. 1932 Toronto, Canada. Died 1982 Toronto, Canada. Henrik Hakansson b. 1968 Helsingborg, Sweden. Lives and works in London, UK and Berlin, Germany. David Hammons b. 1943 Springfield, Illinois, USA. Lives and works in New York, USA. Terrence Hannum b. 1974 Philadelphia, USA. Lives and works in Chicago, USA. William Hunt b. 1977 London, UK. Lives and works in London, UK. Joris Ivens b. 1898 Nijmegen, Holland. Died in 1989 in Paris, France. Hassan Khan b. 1975 London, UK. Lives and works in Cairo, Egypt. Louise Lawler b. 1947 Bronxville, New York, USA. Lives and works in New York, USA. Arto Lindsay b. 1953 Richmond, Virginia, USA. Lives and works in New York, USA. Christian Marclay b. 1955 San Rafael, California, USA. Lives and works in New York, USA. Matmos 2 piece band, Martin Schmidt and Drew Daniel, b. 1997. Lives and works in San Francisco. Momus b. 1960 Paisley, UK. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Meredith Monk b. 1942 Lima, Perù. Lives and works New York; USA. Takeshi Murata b. 1974 Chicago, Illinois, USA. Lives and works in New York, USA. Carsten Nicolai b. 1965 Chemnitz, Germany. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Luigi Nono b. 1924 Venice, Italy. Died1990 Venice, Italia. Kristin Oppenheim b. 1954 Honolulu, USA. Lives and works in New York, USA. Pan Sonic Mika Vaino, b. 1963 Turku, Finland. Ilpo Vaisanen, b. 1963 Kuopio, Finland. Live and work in Berlin. Diego Perrone b. 1970 Asti, Italy. Lives and works in Asti, Italy and Berlin, Germany. Susan Philipsz b. 1965 Glasgow, UK. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Stefano Pilia b. 1975 Genoa, Italy. Lives and works in Bologna, Italy. Mika Ronkainen b. 1970 Finland. Lives and works in Oulo, Finland. Julian Rosefeldt b. 1965 Monaco, Germany. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Anri Sala b. 1974 Tirana, Albania. Lives and works in Paris, France and Berlin, Germany. Tino Sehgal b. 1976 London, UK. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Johannes Stjärne Nilsson e Ola Simonsson b. 1969 Lund, Sweden. Live and work in Stockholm, Sweden. Karlheinz Stockhausen b. 1928 Mödrath, Germany. Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. Alberto Tadiello b. 1983 Montecchio, Italy. Lives and works in Venice. Enzo Umbaca b. 1960 Caulonia, Italy. Lives and works in Milan, Italy. Gillian Wearing b. 1963 Birmingham, UK. Lives and works in London, UK. Artur Zmijewski b. 1966 Warsaw, Poland. Lives and works in Warsaw, Poland.

Silence. Listen to the show

mit Adel Abdessemed, Vito Acconci, Doug Aitken, Victor Alimpiev, Aphex Twin, Micol Assael, John Baldessari, Samuel Beckett, Johanna Billing, Marcel Broodthaers, John Cage, Janet Cardiff, George Bures Miller, Enrico Castellani, Martin Creed, Roberto Cuoghi, Jeremy Deller, Sussan Deyhim, Trisha Donnelly, Ceal Floyer, Glenn Gould, Henrik Håkansson, David Hammons, Terrence Hannum, William Hunt, Joris Ivens, Hassan Khan, Louise Lawler, Arto Lindsay, Christian Marclay, Matmos  (Martin Schmidt / Drew Daniel), Momus , Meredith Monk, Takeshi Murata, Carsten Nicolai, Luigi Nono, Kristin Oppenheim, Pan Sonic , Ilpo Vaisanen, Diego Perrone, Susan Philipsz, Stefano Pilia, Mika Ronkainen, Julian Rosefeldt, Anri Sala, Tino Sehgal, Johannes Stjärne Nilsson / Ola Simonsson, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Alberto Tadiello, Enzo Umbaca, Gillian Wearing, Artur Zmijewski