14/05/2009

Several Silences at the Renaissance Society






‘Several Silences’ is one of the current shows at Chicago’s Renaissance Society’s.
The title of the exhibition is drawn from a 1979 essay by the late Jean-François Lyotard and explores the various social and aesthetic valences of silence in contemporary culture.
Artists like Ryan Gander, Harold Mendez or Beate Geissler and Oliver Sann attempt with their art work to formalize the most immaterial of phenomena in this modest but powerful exhibition.
Interesting idea hopefully showing the enormous potential of silence and it’s value as an artistic form of expression.
You can read more about the show here.

To relate to this subject in the most obvious way, with music, here is a master class with Arvo Part where he talks about his probably the most famous piece “Fur Alina”.
Part is one of the most important modern minimalists and silence plays the key role in his musical compositions that are always a spiritual experience. Enjoy!

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