The two hand-made bronze bells which form the core of Konrad Smole\u0144ski\u2019s installation at the Polish Pavilion successfully convey a somewhat crude and \u201cprimitive\u201d character of a work that alludes to the traditional craft of bell-founding. The bells located in the central part of the building, along with the rows of broadband speakers echoing them and the two opposing walls of metal cases, serve as an example of a model stereophonic system. Although the form of the individual constituents seems familiar, the interaction between them in this relatively small space is quite startling. What seems especially out of place in this arrangement is the idiophones which are normally placed well above the line of vision. Moreover, the purpose of the two hundred small metal doors is open to interpretation \u2014 their size and appearance are quite universal and may be associated with a number of different public spaces and the respective functions that correspond to them. Each of the constituents of this visual and aural arrangement plays an equal part. In Smole\u0144ski\u2019s composition the sound of a traditional instrument is first recorded in real time and then processed, delayed and retransmitted. This is alternated with a monotonous drone from the enormous speakers, and finally the sound reverberates through the metal structures which are integrated with the architecture of the pavilion.<\/p>\n
\nPreviously shown in Venice, the sound sculpture is based primarily on the manipulation of the tolling of a bell \u2014 an ancient instrument which has for centuries set the rhythm of our earthly and \u201ceternal\u201d lives. While transforming this familiar sound, Smole\u0144ski changes its meaning: a sound that evokes a variety of associations is now given an abstract frequency which seems devoid of connotations. Not only does the artist free the signal from its source, but he also resorts to the use of delay and reverberation. The accumulation of acoustic waves provides the broadcast sound with a weight which has a direct impact on all the subjects and objects around the installation. It appears that the acoustic signal can move the molecules of both animate and inanimate objects with an equal force.<\/p>\n
The installation in the Polish Pavilion is a continuation of more than a decade of explorations carried out by a visual artist with a keen interest in sound. Smole\u0144ski\u2019s works combine punk rock aesthetics with the precision and elegance typical of minimalism. The artist uses both traditional and self-constructed sound objects to examine the flow of energy and its interaction with the audience. By exploring the possibilities of electricity, sound waves and PA systems, the artist manipulates the meanings we usually attribute to objects which are typically used in rock culture.<\/p>\n
These artistic endeavors and the way Smole\u0144ski uses his \u201cinstruments\u201d in Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More<\/em> bring to mind the illusory nature of time, as proclaimed by Julian Barbour. This British theoretical physicist undermines the significance of time while conjuring up his vision of a timeless universe, where one of the key categories is the present perceived as a three-dimensional snapshot, and where the chronological ordering of events is a result of nothing more than our memory of individual \u201cNows.\u201d Therefore, time, according to Barbour, is but a sensation of temporality, enhanced by what he calls \u201ctime capsules\u201d, or records of what we believe to have existed in the past.<\/p>\n Aside from Barbour\u2019s hypotheses, our analysis of the artist\u2019s experiments, including those with the sound of a traditional instrument, is based on a number of other scientific and literary theories, all expressing the inaccuracy or exhaustion of the idea of time. These include science-fiction stories, dissertations on experiments with sound and aural illusions, and studies on such museum concepts as the Encyclopedic Palace. An echo of the Venetian installation used as a tool for accumulating energy can also be found in The Voices of Time<\/em> by J. G. Ballard which offers an entropic vision of the \u201clast man on Earth\u201d collecting so-called terminal documents. The aforementioned compositional tools used by Smole\u0144ski are also typical for Samuel Beckett for whom the notion of time is one of the key issues, both in terms of text and plot structure. Thus, repetition, change and non-accomplishment, primary features of Beckett\u2019s work, are characteristics that also to be found in Smole\u0144ski\u2019s works. Both in Beckett\u2019s plays and in Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More<\/em>, time is regarded as a persistence whose intervals and dimensions, generally known as the past, present and future, merge into one with time itself becoming, in the words of the playwright, \u201ca monster that both condemns and redeems.\u201d<\/p>\n The full version of the exhibition\u2019s title taken from the book of Alexei Yurchak: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More. The Last Soviet Generation<\/em> (Princeton University Press, 2005).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1067,"template":"","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n