MoMA Announces First Sound-Based Exhibition This August

The Museum of Modern Art's first major exhibition of sound art, Soundings: A Contemporary Score, presents work by 16 of the most innovative contemporary artists working with sound. The exhibition is on view from August 10 to November 3, 2013 in the Special Exhibitions gallery and other locations around the Museum. While the artists in Soundings approach sound from a variety of angles-the visual arts, architecture, performance, computer programming, and music-they share an interest in working with, rather than against or independent of, a given situation or environment. These artistic responses range from architectural interventions to visualizations of otherwise inaudible sound to an exploration of how sound ricochets within a gallery to a range of field recordings including bats, abandoned buildings in Chernobyl, 59 bells in New York City, and a factory in Taiwan. Soundings is organized by Barbara London, Associate Curator, with Leora Morinis, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance Art, MoMA.

The diversity of these works echoes the complex and contested field of sound as art. Yet the exhibition posits something specific: that sound can elicit-both in the maker and the museumgoer-modes of active, focused listening, and a heightened relationship between interior and exterior space. At a time when personal listening devices and tailored playlists have become ubiquitous, shared aural spaces are increasingly rare. Many of the artists in the exhibition aim for such realities, and the sound they create is decidedly social, immersing visitors and connecting them in space. In many of the works, links are drawn between disparate topographies and subjects, giving rise to new notions of place, time, and experience.

The artists in the exhibition are Luke Fowler (Scottish, b. 1978), Toshiya Tsunoda (Japanese, b. 1964), Marco Fusinato (Australian, b. 1964), Richard Garet (Uruguayan, b. 1972), Florian Hecker (German, b. 1975), Christine Sun Kim (American, b. 1980), Jacob Kirkegaard (Danish, b. 1975), Haroon Mirza (British, b. 1977), Carsten Nicolai (German, b. 1965), Camille Norment (American, b. 1970), Tristan Perich (American, b. 1982), Susan Philipsz (Scottish, b. 1965), Sergei Tcherepnin (American, b. 1981), Hong-Kai Wang (Taiwanese, b. 1971), Jana Winderen (Norwegian, b. 1965), and Stephen Vitiello (American, b. 1964).