Ensemble

Opening Reception Thursday, September 6, 6-8pm

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is pleased to present "Ensemble," a group exhibition of works that make sound, guest curated by artist and musician Christian Marclay. Marclay has been selected as the inaugural curator of the Katherine Stein Sachs CW'69 and Keith L. Sachs W'67 Guest Curator Program, a new initiative designed to bring outside points of view to ICA. Marclay is a leading figure in the worlds of performance, visual art and experimental music.

Likening his approach to that of a composer, Marclay has chosen a variety of sculpture and installations based on their sound quality and compatibility to sonically inhabit the same large first floor gallery. Visitors are invited to interact with some of the works, others are triggered by motion detectors, or set on timers. The installation will create an ambient sound environment, intermittently producing a wide range of sounds, from the very quiet notes of a music box to the loud ringing of a bronze bell. They have been selected so that they can share the same resonant space and interact like the various instruments of a musical ensemble. It will include iconic works by artists such as Harry Bertoia, Yoko Ono, and Michelangelo Pistoletto, as well as new works by the current generation.

Whether it comes from sonic or video art, in the curatorial field, sound is often relegated to isolated exhibition spaces where it cannot interact, or presumably disturb, other pieces. Marclay proposes to work against that impulse by intentionally intermingling pieces to see what may result when they are put together for an entirely unprecedented curatorial purpose.

This exhibition will be a listening experience, enhanced by a series of music performances, in which artists and musicians invited by Marclay will perform within the exhibition, reacting to the artworks' sounds. The exhibition will be documented by a CD featuring recordings of the installation and performances, and a text by Christian Marclay.

Christian Marclay (b.1955 in San Rafael, California, raised in Geneva, Switzerland, lives in New York) is an artist and musician who is as highly regarded for his work as a visual and performance artist, as he is for being a composer and deejay. He began performing music in the late 1970s, while still a student at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, at which he had enrolled after attending art school in Geneva, where he had grown up. Among his many important projects are: "Shake, Rattle and Roll: Christian Marclay," Franklin Art Works in collaboration with the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; "Christian Marclay: Video Quartet," Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany; and "Silent Music" at the Church of San Stae for the Venice Biennale (this installation represented Switzerland). In 2003, his work was the subject of a major survey organized by Russell Ferguson at the UCLA Hammer Museum.

Marclay has had a significant presence in Philadelphia since 2003, when the Philadelphia Museum of Art invited him to participate in their "Museum Studies" series. Marclay's "The Bell and the Glass" created an exploratory intersection between the cracks of two Philadelphia landmarks: the Liberty Bell and Marcel Duchamp's Large Glass. (The local experimental music group Reláche performed as part of the exhibition.) Currently, Marclay is a member of the curatorial team who is developing programs and exhibitions for "Hidden City", an initiative of Peregrine Arts. In December 2006 Marclay performed at ICA with John M. Armleder in conjunction with Armleder's exhibition of drawings then on view. Marclay's art is featured on the cover of the survey Sound Art Beyond Music, Between Categories, published by Rizzoli and will be released this November while "Ensemble" is on view at ICA.

Participating artists include: Terry Adkins, Doug Aitken, Darren Almond, John M. Armleder, Fia Backström, Harry Bertoia, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, Angela Bulloch, Martin Creed, David Ellis, Mineko Grimmer, Tim Hawkinson, Jim Hodges, Evan Holloway, Pierre Huyghe, Paul Ramirez-Jonas, Nina Katchadourian, Martin Kersels, Jon Kessler, Katja Kölle, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Carolee Schneemann, Noah Sheldon, Yoshi Wada and Angela White, among others.

Ensemble
Kurator: Christian Marclay

mit Terry Adkins, Doug Aitken, Darren Almond, John Armleder, Fia Backström, Harry Bertoia, Celeste Boursier-Mougenot, Angela Bulloch, Martin Creed, David Ellis, Mineko Grimmer, Tim Hawkinson, Jim Hodges, Evan Holloway, Pierre Huyghe, Paul Ramirez-Jonas, Nina Katchadourian, Martin Kersels, Jon Kessler, Katja Kölle, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Carolee Schneemann, Noah Sheldon, Yoshi Wada, Angela White