An exhibition with a long, informative name - Sounding the Body Electric: Experiments in Art and Music in Eastern Europe 1957–1984 - comes with a simple, interesting message: despite communism, expression in Eastern Europe through experimentation between visual arts and music was audacious, and was explored more in the 1960s than perhaps any time before or since
London's Shoreditch-based Calvert 22 Gallery houses a large exhibition of films, "happenings" and sounding installations by over 20 Eastern European artists. Why is Eastern Europe of particular interest in experimental music's sphere, and why did the Polish-British curating team choose the late 1950s to the mid 1980s? The explanation goes as follows,
Eastern European artists and composer were at the forefront of new experiments in sound, and yet their achievements have never been recorded until now. They were given new opportunities to experiment in the aftermath of Stalinism when new recording studios equipped with magnetic tape recorders and, later, synthesisers were established, first in Warsaw in 1957 and then throughout Eastern Europe. New and challenging forms of music by pioneers of electronic music like Krzysztof Penderecki were produced in these laboratories of sound. The exhilaration of experimentation declined during the decade and in the 1970s when new critical forms of art emerged which associated sound with surveillance and censorship.
Until recent years, sound in itself has rarely been the focal point of exhibitions. In the past two decades, exhibitions devoted to the arts of sound - or the use of sound as a medium - have emerged. The Body Electric brings together more than 30 works by Eastern European artists whose experimentation with sound and image was spurred by political freedom and reform of " the thaw". Some of the pieces, such as Szabolcs Esztényi and Krzysztof Wodiczko's Just Transistor Radios from 1970 (see gallery below) had to be re-created for the exhibition. The work is considered a critical intervention into broadcast radio in the People's Republic of Poland.
Experimental Studio at the Polish Radio, photo: press materials
The exhibition curators are David Crowley, an art historian based at the Royal College of Art and an expert on Eastern European art in the 20th century, and Daniel Muzyczuk, a curator at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź where The Body Electric was first shown, in 2012, and the curator of the Polish pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2013.
The Calvert 22 Foundation is dedicated to building cultural bridges between Russia, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet republics and the rest of the world. Established in 2009 by Nonna Materkova, a Russian-born, London-based economist, it seeks to foster dialogue and encourage a global reappraisal of the culture of this part of the world, independent of governmental dictates or commercial interests.
Additional information:
Panel Discussion on Curating Sound, held on Thursday the 27th of June at 7 pm at Calvert 22. See more information: Calvert 22.
The Wire Salon: In the Experimental Zone: Art and Music in Eastern Europe in the 1960s and 70s, a talk by David Crowley organised in collaboration with The Wire magazine will be held on Thursday the 11th of July at 8 pm at Cafe OTO. The curator will talk about the politics of experimentation in Eastern Europe during the 1960s and 1970s and focus on the sound works of Krzysztof Wodiczko, Milan Knížák, Zygmunt Krauze, Dóra Maurer, Zoltán Jeney, the Bosch + Bosch Group and others. See more information: Calvert 22.
For more information see: Calvert 22 Gallery
A double-CD of recordings of works in the show will be issued by Bólt Records.
Artists featured in the exhibition: Walerian Borowczyk, Collective Actions, Andrzej Dłużniewski, Szábolcs Esztényi, Bulat Galeyev, Milan Grygar, Zofia & Oskar Hansen, Zoltán Jeney, Milan Knížák, Grzegorz Kowalski, Zygmunt Krauze, Komar & Melamid, Katalin Ladik, Jan Lenica, Dóra Maurer, Henryk Morel, Vladan Radovanović, Józef Robakowski, Eugeniusz Rudnik, Bogusław Schaeffer,Cezary Szubartowski, László Vidovszky, Krzysztof Wodiczko
Editor: Marta Jazowska 21.06.2013
Sources: Calvert 22 press release