Tag: press

“Los milagros y el fluir de la música bajo el agua” – article on El Economista, Mexico

press May 11, 2017

La artista Tomoko Sauvage busca llevar al espectador por un paseo de meditación a través de su propuesta sonora.

Este viernes, la artista franco-japonesa Tomoko Sauvage inaugurará su instalación acústica In Curved Water en el Ex Teresa Arte Actual, con un performance que espera, sea capaz de generar… un milagro.

Tomoko tocará un instrumento diseñado por ella, conformado por tazones de porcelana llenos de agua (waterbowls), amplificados con hidrófonos (micrófonos subacuáticos), cuyo sonido es difícil de controlar porque depende de varios factores, por ejemplo, las cualidades acústicas del espacio, la evaporación del agua que disminuye la cantidad de agua de los tazones y modifica la frecuencia, la cantidad de gente.

Todos estos elementos pueden generar el fenómeno de feedback (retroalimentación), así pues, si la ejecución no se lleva a cabo de una manera óptima, en vez de generar una experiencia bella y meditativa, Tomoko podría generar ruido y estridencias, pero si todo se conduce de manera adecuada ocurre lo que Tomoko llama un milagro: “Yo juego con la acústica del espacio y todo el tiempo es diferente.  El feedback puede ser peligroso, porque el sonido podría lastimar los oídos. Pero trato de controlar la fluctuación y a veces un milagro ocurre. De pronto emergen frecuencias que no esperaba… y se vuelve un momento milagroso”.

El sonido del instrumento se crea a través del goteo, pero para controlar las fluctuaciones que el feedback puede generar, Tomoko usa sus manos: las introduce en los recipientes para ir cambiando las frecuencias es un acto que ella considera cercano al arte de la caligrafía, y que al final resulta meditativo.

Tomoko explica lo anterior de manera más formal: ““El tono de una nota cambia dependiendo de la cantidad de agua y ésta se balancea cuando el agua se agita, por eso lo de ‘agua curvada’. Como un arco iris, necesita ciertas condiciones para que aparezcan curvas perfectas”.

El instrumento de Tomoko tiene su origen en el sur de la India, el jalatharangam: “Me fascinó la simplicidad del dispositivo y la fluidez del sonido. El sonido de esta instalación es creado por el uso de gotas de agua, generadas con un sistema de goteo por hielo derretido”.

Tomoko toca por intuición. No tiene una partitura establecida así que debe improvisar. Pero tampoco es que se aviente “a la brava”, y es que la artista japonesa estudió formalmente música clásica y jazz, así como música antigua de la india, además de que conoce el instrumento desde hace 10 años. Es decir, no es una improvisada en el arte musical. “La música que toco con este instrumento tiene algo que ver con lo sagrado, con los milagros y la meditación”, nos comenta Tomoko, a quien le pedimos que nos diga, qué es un milagro para ella: “Es algo increíble, busco algo increíble y además… desde hace cuatro años hay algunos problemas familiares, así tengo que creer en un milagro. Es algo muy personal y no lo escribo en la descripción de mi concierto, pero esto es como una plegaria  para mí, es como llegar a algún lugar que está fuera de toda expectativa.

“Y también la interacción con el público puede ser milagrosa, es como si los pudiera sentir, es como un momento mágico. Creo que es parte de la concentración, del acto de escuchar de manera profunda… y de pronto parece que te conectas con algo cósmico. Es algo tan fuerte que no puedo describir”, concluye la artista.

El proyecto In Curved Water fue curado por Eric Namour. La inauguración incluirá un performance de la artista, este viernes 31 de marzo a las 18:30, en Ex Teresa Arte Actual (Calle Licenciado Verdad 8,  Centro Histórico).

@faustponce

http://eleconomista.com.mx/entretenimiento/2017/03/30/milagros-fluir-musica-bajo-agua

Tapage Nocturne sur France Musique

press September 30, 2016

Performance en live + interview, invitée par Bruno Letort et François Bonnet au studio 107 de Radio France, Septembre 2016

Podcast – http://www.francemusique.fr/emission/tapage-nocturne/2016-2017/tomoko-sauvage-est-l-invitee-de-tapage-nocturne-09-22-2016-23-00

Hyalin, exhibition at Bon Accueil, Rennes previewed by ParisArt.com (Fr)

exhibition January 30, 2016

Hyalin

La multi-instrumentaliste et compositrice de musique électro-acoustique improvisée Tomoko Sauvage, inspirée autant par la musique minimaliste américaine que par les improvisations du free et la musique carnatique d’Inde du sud, installe ses Waterbowls à Rennes.

Le titre de l’exposition, «Hyalin», qui signifie «qui a la transparence du verre», tente de rendre au mieux et en un minimum de mots l’esprit du travail poétique et sonore de l’artiste japonaise Tomoko Sauvage invitée par le Bon Accueil. L’eau, la glace et la porcelaine sont les trois principaux éléments qu’utilise Tomoko Sauvage pour créer des atmosphères sonores hivernales et sereines où la transparence de l’eau, l’aspect diaphane de la porcelaine viennent donner forme aux sonorités cristallines créées par les gouttes d’eau glacées venant finir leur course dans les bols amplifiés.

Que ce soit sous forme d’installations minimalistes où lors de ses concerts, Tomoko Sauvage propose aux visiteurs de prendre le temps d’être à l’écoute de chaque goutte d’eau irrésistiblement attirée par l’attraction terrestre, de guetter sa chute jusqu’à sa rencontre sonore avec la surface de l’eau. Une démarche prenant racine dans la musique expérimentale américaine qui s’est notamment imprégnée, au travers de La Monte Young ou John Cage, de philosophie extrême orientale et plus particulièrement de l’idée de non obstruction.

Un principe, où à une action directe du musicien, se substitue une force extérieure faisant résider l’acte musical autant dans la mise en place des éléments favorables à la création d’un univers sonore que dans son écoute. Dans une conférence de 1960, La Monte Young cite un poème chinois de la fin du VIIIème siècle dans lequel il est fait mention du qin, un instrument à cordes chinois, qui grâce au vent, sans que cela soit une volonté délibérée du musicien, se met à vibrer à la manière des harpes éoliennes. C’est ce même principe, de non agissement, de délégation à des forces extérieures conviant également l’aléatoire, qui se retrouve dans les installations et concerts de Tomoko Sauvage. Ici en lieu et place du vent ce sont l’attraction terrestre et la chaleur qui jouent le rôle de force agissante.

L’exposition est également une évocation du temps qui passe, de l’éphémère et du transitoire. Fonte de la glace, changement d’état de la matière, chute d’une goutte d’eau, brefs sons clairs et tintements, tesselles de porcelaines suspendues tissent un univers fragile qui, tel un paysage neigeux, sous l’apparente immobilité ne cesse de se transformer. L’exposition s’organisera principalement d’une version pensée pour Le Bon Accueil de son installation pour glace et bols amplifiés, ainsi que d’une nouvelle oeuvre constituée de fragments de porcelaine suspendus tintant au moindre souffle d’air.

http://www.paris-art.com/photo-art/hyalin/tomoko-sauvage/18275.html

Review on Art Asia Pacific : exhibition “Sonorous Objects” at The Empty Gallery, Hong Kong

press October 13, 2015

Sonorous Objects

Web Review BY Simon Frank

The Empty Gallery

One way out of the creative impasse inadvertently generated by the white-cube gallery model may simply be to paint the walls black—or so The Empty Gallery founder Stephen Cheng commented half jokingly at the opening of “Sonorous Objects.” This sound-art-focused exhibit is currently on view at The Empty Gallery, a unique Hong Kong venue in operation since March of this year. All black, with a labyrinthine collection of sparsely lit rooms and a single narrow window, the gallery is housed on the 19th floor of an industrial building on the south side of Hong Kong Island. Arriving by elevator in the darkness makes for an unsettling experience, though one that attunes the viewer’s non-visual senses—even if only to avoid walking into a wall, or worse.

Fortunately, the pieces assembled for “Sonorous Objects” justify, and actively engage with, the sensory-deprivation-tank-like setting. Displaying work by early German sound-art practitioner Rolf Julius (1939–2011) along with that of three younger artists, the show avoids an overt theme, though each contribution felt bound together by a quiet subtlety and an organic, self-generative feeling. In contrast to the excessive flash and noise oftentimes seen in sound art displays, the overall atmosphere at the gallery is more meditative, requiring the viewer to look and listen closely.

ROLF JULIUS, Large Stonegarden (monochrome), 2010, stones, three speakers, MP3 player, wires and audio, 165 × 165 cm. Courtesy The Empty Gallery, Hong Kong.

ROLF JULIUS, Large Stonegarden (monochrome) (detail), 2010, stones, three speakers, MP3 player, wires and audio, 165 × 165 cm. Courtesy The Empty Gallery, Hong Kong.

Julius is recognized as a pioneer for taking inspiration from American avant-garde composers such as La Monte Young and John Cage (1912–1992) and recontextualizing sound in an installation-based, rather than performance-based, setting. Minimal and understated, his individual pieces feel like a point of departure from which to understand the rest of the exhibit. In Large Stonegarden (monochrome) (2010), small rocks found near the artist’s home in Finland can be seen arranged in a rough square on the ground. At first it simply seems to resemble a Zen garden; but the thin, cicada-like drone that begins to quietly seep out of miniscule speakers interspersed within the rocks demonstrate the depth of Julius’ craft. Without drawing on obvious signifiers, the piece brings an idyllic atmosphere to the gallery, like the textured nightscape of outdoors. Unfortunately, because of the hushed sounds of Large Stonegarden it is sometimes difficult to detect them over the louder, surrounding pieces.

TOMOKO SAUVAGE, In Curved Water, 2015, sound installation with water drops, Sisal ropes, ice, water, porcelain bowls, hydrophones and sound system, dimensions variable. Courtesy The Empty Gallery, Hong Kong.

Julius’s preeminent status within the exhibition aside, the centerpiece of the show was Japanese artist Tomoko Sauvage’s In Curved Water (2015), which grew out of her practice as an improvising musician playing amplified bowls tuned by water level—itself inspired by jal tarang, a traditional Indian percussion instrument. The title of Sauvage’s work, as well as its association with Indian classical music, harkens back to the oeuvre of American minimalist composer Terry Riley, known for his 1969 album A Rainbow in Curved Air. In the gallery’s main room, blocks of ice wrapped in twine rope hangs from the ceiling, refracting light from isolated spotlights in the dark; they are slowly dripping water into bowls, some of which are connected to hydrophones. The resonance of the bowls transform the pitter-patter of the melting ice into an unpredictable pulse reminiscent of wind chimes. Sauvage gave a brief performance in the eerie, cave-like room at the exhibition’s opening reception, highlighting how, in a sense, the installation itself was improvised. As she created a thick droning sound using additional water bowls and electronic echo sound effects, the melting ice provided random, live accompaniment—a role that might have otherwise been occupied by another musician or computer program.

For cristo fué y gaucamaya (2015), Venezuelan artist and self-taught musician Rubén D’Hers also left elements of his project up to chance, by using analog means to create sound. The installation consists of two wooden birdcages, each with steel strings and feathers attached to motors inside. Recordings of bird songs trigger the speed and activity of the motors, causing the feathers to brush the strings and let out guitar-like twangs. The feathers would occasionally become stuck, preventing a regular pattern from emerging and giving the disconcerting impression that the installation is alive rather than mechanized.

RUBÉN D’HERS, cristo fué y guacamaya, 2015, sound installation with bird cages, feathers, steel strings, tuning pegs and dc motors, dimensions variable. Courtesy The Empty Gallery, Hong Kong.

A similarly disquieting tone inhabited a set of films by French musician and filmmaker Marc Hurtado. Considering Hurtado’s association with noise music, one might have expected a cacophony accompanied by intense imagery; but Aurore (1989), Royaume (1991) and Bleu (1994), which are screened in a backroom, present grainy, oversaturated film footage of trees, shimmering water, and people, edited together in a flickering manner that brings to mind artist and poet Brion Gysin’s Dream Machine experiments of the 1960s. The soundtrack of the work is comprised of field recordings that seem connected to the footage, but also sound like unintelligible whispering—which makes the films at once soothing and uncomfortably intimate, as if the audience is intruding upon a private moment.

Such juxtaposition of relaxing calm with an underlying current of tension tie together the constituent pieces of “Sonorous Objects,” with their quiet gestures heightened, and occasionally given a sinister edge, by their pitch-black surroundings. By reaching back to sound art’s original antecedents—from Indian tradition to American minimalism—the exhibit feels somewhat disconnected from a new generation of sound art, one filled with digital gloss and dance-music references. Yet its emphasis on tactile sound creation and interaction with the natural world also felt like a much-needed antidote to the information overload of today’s media art.

“Sonorous Objects” is on view at The Empty Gallery, Hong Kong, until October 22, 2015

http://www.artasiapacific.com/Magazine/WebExclusives/SonorousObjects

Zum Dahinschmelzen – review of the exhibition TRANSFORMATION III, Berlin on NEUKöLLNER.NET (DE)

press December 20, 2014

Zum Dahinschmelzen
von Anne Stephanie Wildermann am 25. November 2014

Die außergwöhnliche Musik-Installation der japanisch-französischen Künstlerin Tomoko Sauvage eröffnet Kindergarten- und Schulkindern des Campus Rütli neue Klangwelten. Die Ausstellung ist bis zum 12. Dezember in der Temporären Galerie zu sehen.

Eisblöcke, umwickelt von hellen Schnüren, hängen von der Decke der “Temporären Galerie” in der Quartiershalle Campus Rütli in der Rütlistraße 35. Langsam und geschmeidig tropft das geschmolzene Eis hinunter, aufgefangen von einer weißen Porzellanschüssel. Es macht plitsch-platsch, wenn der Tropfen mit dem Wasser in der Schüssel Eins wird. An die zehn Eisblöcke hängen von der Decke und jedes Plitsch und jedes Platsch klingt anders. Akkustich aufgefangen werden die Tropfentöne von Hydrophonen (Unterwassermikrofone), die am Rand der Porzellanschüsseln befestigt sind. Nahezu meditativ klingen die Töne, die an Glockengeläut erinnern und sich zu ganzen Tropfenklängen entwickeln.

Die Idee zu dieser außergewöhnlichen Musikinstallation hatte die japanisch-französische Musikerin Tomoko Sauvage, die drei Wochen lang mit den Kita-Kindern des Rütli-Campus und ihrer Wassertropfen-Installation zusammen arbeiten wird. “Ich freue mich sehr und bin gespannt, wie es für die Kinder sein wird”, sagt Tomoko Sauvage, die auf eine unkonventionelle Art und Weise zeigen will, dass man auch mit Wasser musizieren kann – ohne, dass es ein klassisches Musikinstrument dafür bedarf, obwohl die Künstlerin Klavier studiert hat. Die kleinen Konzerte, die sie mit den Kita-Kindern macht, finden nur im intimen Rahmen und nicht für die Öffentlichkeit statt.

“Jeder Künstler darf nur unter der Prämisse bei uns ausstellen, wenn er bereit ist, mit den Kindern des Rütli Campus zusammen zu arbeiten”, betont Kuratorin Silvia Ploner. Nichtsdestotrotz darf sich jeder andere die Ausstellung Transformation III, also bereits die dritte Transformation in der “Temporären Galerie”, zu den regulären Öffnungszeiten ansehen. Der Auftakt der Reihe war im Herbst 2013. Im Fokus jeder Ausstellung steht das Spannungsfeld zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft.

Das Fenster zieht Neugierige an

Zusätzlich arbeitet immer ein lokaler Künstler parallel mit. In dem Fall ist es die Neuköllner Musikerin Heidrun Schramm. An ihren Workshops nehmen Schüler bis zu zwölf Jahre teil. Die Kinder kommen mit ihren Lehrern während des Musikunterrichtes in die Galerie und werden Kontaktmikrofone bauen. Die reagieren nicht über Schall, sonder nur über Kontakt. So wird aus einem Papierrascheln auf dem Tisch eine Granatexplosion.

Das Team, um die Initiatorin der Galerie Ida Schildhauer, ist darum berühmt, durch die diversen Projekte alle Altersgruppen miteinzubeziehen, den Horizont der Kinder zu erweitern und Hemmschwellen abzubauen. Letzteres geschieht meist schon von allein: Das große Fenster zur Pflügerstraße hin, lockt immer wieder neugierige Kinder, Jugendliche und Spaziergänger an.

Die Musikinstallation der Künstlerin Tomoko Sauvage ist bis zum 12. Dezember zu sehen.

Öffnungszeiten: Montag bis Freitag, 11 bis 19 Uhr.

http://www.neukoellner.net/kunst-kitsch/zum-dahinschmelzen/

Il gamelan silenzioso – review of a performance at Raum, Bologna on D’ARS Magazine (IT)

press December 20, 2014

Il “silenzio assoluto” non esiste, è solo un’illusione. Molti rimangono ancora sconvolti da questa affermazione, ma quando John Cage si trovò all’interno della camera anecoica dell’università di Harvard, arrivò a constatare questa scioccante conclusione. Entrò nella stanza pensando di poter udire il “silenzio assoluto”, invece riuscì a sentire solamente due rumori continui: uno acuto e l’altro più grave. Così un ingegnere gli spiegò che aveva ascoltato il proprio apparato cardiocircolatorio e nervoso. Il nostro corpo è composto per il 70% di acqua, che scorre impetuosa nelle nostre vene senza mai fermarsi. Noi siamo acqua e veniamo da essa nell’utero materno, per questo motivo l’acqua esercita su di noi un particolare potere emotivo. Perciò, anche se per molti è una fase senza importanza, il nostro periodo prenatale è uno dei momenti più importanti della nostra esistenza. All’interno dell’utero materno noi abbiamo il nostro primo approccio con le emozioni e l’acqua è il primo mezzo con il quale riusciamo a farlo tramite i suoni del mondo esterno. Tomoko Sauvage con la sua Performance per ciotole di porcellana, acqua e idrofoni, presentata giovedì 4 dicembre da Xing e Sant’Andrea degli amplificatori al Raum di Bologna (e il giorno successivo a O’ di Milano) , si basa su due grandi elementi estetici: l’acqua e i suoi contenitori. In musicoterapia gli strumenti con la cassa di risonanza, vengono catalogati come strumenti femminili, perchè associati alla conformazione dell’utero materno e la performance di Tomoko richiama in modo diretto questa simbologia inconscia. Sopra ogni contenitore l’artista ha posizionato un bicchiere di plastica appeso e bucato nel fondo favorendo la fuoriuscita regolare di gocce nell’acqua delle bacinelle sottostanti. Il suono prodotto da queste gocce è continuo e regolare e fa da bordone durante tutta la composizione, variando di tonalità in base alla dimensione della bacinella. La parte melodica e polifonica che arricchisce il singolo suono “cardiaco” delle gocce, è prodotta da Tomoko attraverso il movimento delle mani nell’acqua: onde, schizzi oppure spostamenti d’acqua da un recipiente all’atro. Un semplice sasso inserito nella bacinella di porcellana è come se creasse uno squarcio nella stanza, come se rompesse l’acqua in tanti pezzettini. Mentre una semplice carezza del bordo della porcellana, produce un sibilo continuo e perforante. Tutti i suoni sono controllati attraverso i comandi del mixer e arrichiti con delay, distorsioni, filtri ed FX (effetti). Infine, nella parte conclusiva campiona una sezione e la fa partire in loop, operando ulteriormente in tempo reale sul materiale registrato. La prima cosa che ho pensato ascoltando i suoni prodotti dalla performance di Tomoko è stata al “gamelan giavanese“: un’affascinate orchestra formata da idiofoni, molto diffusa in Indonesia, in cui la ciclicità e le molteplici sonorità prodotte dagli strumenti percossi, sono le uniche prerogative estetiche fondanti. Ma questo collegamento estetico non è stato l’unico elemento emerso perchè ho pensato anche a Cage nella camera iperbarica. Ho pensato all’acqua che ogni giorno percorre dentro di noi infiniti cicli da quando il nostro cuore ha iniziato a battere e alla straordinaria influenza che esercita sulla nostra psiche. Ho quindi immaginato che la performance di Tomoko Sauvage fosse come un tributo a questo elemento che più di ogni altro accomuna la nostra esistenza. Un “gamelan silenzioso”, che attraverso una percussione ciclica celebra la maternità e quindi la vita. Il lavoro di Tomoko è in conclusione una composizione di suoni comuni a ogniuno di noi, in particolare al nostro “silenzio” che da sempre accompagna la nostra esistenza, anche in questo momento. Sara Cucchiarini http://www.darsmagazine.it/gamelan-silenzioso-tomoko-sauvage/

Review of the Töne Festival on WIRE Oct 2014

press December 20, 2014

“… Tomoko Sauvage’s installation in a town centre studio shows the festival at its best on the final afternoon. Suspended blocks of ice drip into metal bowls equipped with hydrophones, creating a web of chimes like a chorus of suikinkutsu water instruments. In the back room, a massive block of ice slowly melts over gold foil, lit from beneath. Water, sound, resonance, light become metaphors for one another…”