Tin cans, whistles, locomotive suspension springs, porcelain bowls, compressor top bells, ping pong balls, agave dry leaves, sponges, steel wires, branches, paper foils, plastic bags, silver papers, pink gloves, piano, balloons, buckets, feathers, water, scraps, pebbles, flower pots, metal tubes, paulownia tree seeds, bamboo sticks, logs, bones, stones…
Rie Nakajima and Pierre Berthet have been creating various ways to vibrate things so that their acoustic shadows dance around: invisible air volumes that reshape constantly, move in the space, enter in the most secret places and inside ourselves. A way to get closer to things inherent spirits is to listen to them. Eventually encouraging them to produce sounds and resonate by various means: to hit, caress, shake, beat, scrape, scratch, claw, boil, clap, rattle, rock, throw, move, magnetise, clamp, cook, pinch, galvanise, motorise, bow, blow, pluck, heat up, let flow, freeze, drop, drip, connect, roll, mix, extend, sing…
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Rie Nakajima is a Japanese sculptor based in London. She creates sound using a combination of motorized devices and everyday objects. Her work may take the form of an installation or a performance. Blending sculpture and sound, her artistic practice remains open to chance and to the influence of others.
Her first major solo exhibition was held at the IKON Gallery in Birmingham in 2018. She has also worked with Museo Vostell Malpartida (Cáceres), Association de Le Cyclop (Milly la Forêt), ShugoArts (Tokyo), Donaueschinger Music Festival (Donaueschingen), and Café OTO (London). Her collaborators include Pierre Berthet, Angharad Davies, David Cunningham, Keiko Yamamoto, miki yui, hans.w.koch, Marie Roux, Billy Steiger, David Toop, and Akira Sakata.
Pierre Berthet is a Belgian artist, musician, composer, and inventor from Liège. He studied percussion at the Brussels Conservatory with André Van Belle and Georges-Elie Octors. In the 1980s, he spent considerable time in a bell tower, playing the carillon and exploring environmental sounds.
He took improvisation classes with Garrett List, composition with Frederic Rzewski, and worked with Henri Pousseur. From an early age, he was fascinated by the exploration of sounds produced by objects, striking, rubbing, and shaking different materials. Over time, he began creating instruments using steel wires and cans. He has performed with Arnold Dreyblatt’s band and in a duo with Frédéric Le Junter. Since 1990, he has been dedicated to designing and producing sound and visual installations, adapting them to the spaces where they are presented. More recently, he has explored the sounds of dried plants, motorizing them to generate new sonorities.
With the support of Wallonie Bruxelles International (WBI)
