VENEZIA CD

Making the walls quake as if they were dilating with the secret knowledge of great powers

Recording of the sound sculpture in the Polish Pavilion at 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice


Sound sculpture by Katarzyna Krakowiak
Sound design by Ralf Meinz
Voices by Ulrike Helmholz and Sabina Meyer
Recorded, edited, mixed and mastered by by Ralf Meinz

Produced by Michał Libera (Foundation 4.99), City Culture Institute in Gdańsk, Zachęta National Gallery Of Art

Published by Bôłt Records
Distributed by Monotype Records
Graphic design by Czosnek Studio

Polish Pavilion Commissioner: Hanna Wróblewska
Assistant Commissioner: Joanna Waśko
Organizer: Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
Exhibition Curator: Michał Libera


Total time: 37.42

Official release date: 11th of December 2012



Architectural Biennale sound sculpture amplifying the entire building of the Polish Pavilion turned into a flat CD? Will you say it completely misses the point? Brings the real space into a stereo system? Or is it just different? Listening to this album, you will definitely miss some of the acoustic reinforcements of the room we created to raise a sculpture following the natural acoustics of the room. They are only explained here in words, on the following pages. But this is the high time and also the best occasion to highlight other dimensions and bring them to foreground here.

We approach the building as the composition itself. And what we hear is the material. The complexity of the material, the fallaciousness and the anxiety of it. Definitely crossing the line of how much we actually want to hear. Let us say that you can hear the total sum of the sounds we could hear in the Pavilion.

The sounds of the interior – the people, what they say and what they do, how they move – inside the room. The sounds of the exterior – just in front and just in the back of the Pavilion with walls and ventilation system working as filters – the boats, the construction work, the cicadas. But also again: the people, what they say and what they do, how they move – outside but audible. The sounds of the neighboring Pavilions – the Venetian and the Serbian with their own sound installations and soundtracks. But also again: the people, what they say and what they do, how they move – neighboring and audible. The sounds of the room – their vibrating walls, floor and ceiling; their beats and their noises. And finally the sounds of the exhibition and in particular the sounds of the opening with Ulrike Helmholtz and Sabina Meyer singing in the Pavilion. All that amplified, filtered, edited, mixed and sequenced just to make this complexity NOT vanish like it does in every day hearing with our ears.