lys hvitt · lyd hvit || light white · sound white – Luz María Sánchez
February 9 – March 31
February 9 – March 31, 2024
Audio visual installation.
Exhibition opening Friday March 9th @ 18.00.
lys hvitt · lyd hvit || light white · sound white is a text-based, participatory, generative, immersive audio-visual installation exploring physical space through sound, text and moving images.
Participatory in nature, lys hvitt · lyd hvit || light white · sound white invites visitors to activate its core system. Generative elements come into play as the installation’s form transforms with each activation, altering sound, video, and text components. The immersive quality is heightened by the configuration of loudspeakers and screen placement, offering an audio-visual experience enveloping the spectator.
At the heart of lys hvitt · lyd hvit || light white · sound white is a text-based element, where AI is employed to translate words into sound through text-to-speech technology while cloning the artist’s voice, adding a unique and personal dimension to the auditory experience.
After relocating to Trondheim in 2021, Sánchez developed lys hvitt · lyd hvit || light white · sound white as an opportunity to return to her research on Samuel Beckett’s strategies on speech utterance and the idea of a self-dismantling machine, embodied in the technological aspect of the installation.
38. w’s lips move, uttering inaudibly: ‘… clouds … but the clouds … of the sky …’, v murmuring, synchronous with lips: ‘… but the clouds …’ Lips cease. 5 seconds. (Beckett 2006, 421*)
lys hvitt · lyd hvit || light white · sound white also serves as an essential element in Sánchez’s political re-consideration of earth – questioning what land is and what sky is. With this installation Sánchez continued her explorations of closed and open spaces, the nuances and transformations of light within the immediate landscape, and the possibilities of sound.
Sánchez’s strong political vertebrae is still present in lys hvitt · lyd hvit || light white · sound white. This artwork belongs to the artist’s production in which she urges for a shift from the actual necro-capitalocene to an ecocene – even if there is no time left.
lys hvitt · lyd hvit || light white · sound white premieres at Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre (TEKS). The work was created with a grant from Fond for lyd og bilde.
* Samuel Beckett. (2006). … but the clouds …In The Complete Dramatic Works. London: Faber.
Credits:
Frank Ekeberg: Pure data programming, sound generation.
Josué Martínez Alcántara: Video editing.
Luz María Sánchez (MX/NO) is a transdisciplinary artist, writer, and scholar. She holds a Doctorate in Art from the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. Sánchez received two consecutive Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mentions in 2020 and 2021 for her projects Vis.[un]necessary force_3 and Vis.[un]necessary force_4. In 2015, she was granted the Climate Change Artist Commission by the Land Heritage Institute (Texas). In 2014, she received the First Prize Award of the Biennial de las Fronteras (Mexico).
With a professional career of 27+ years, Sánchez has exhibited her artworks in Europe and the Americas, most recently at Ruby City Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio (2023-2024); Haus Kunst Mitte, Berlin (2023); Scuola Grande di Carmini, Venice (2023); Elektroakustisk Trondheim at the Planetarium/Trondheim Science Center (2023); Opalka Gallery, Albany, New York (2023); Circuits and Currents, Athens (2023); GAM, Mexico City (2022-2023); Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2022); Piksel Festival, Kunstskolen I Bergen, Bergen (2022); Ars Electronica, Linz (2021, 2020); Contemporary Art University Museum MUAC, Mexico City (2019); Musikkens Hus, Aalborg (2019); WRO Art Center, Wroclaw (2019); Sala Ricson/Hangar, Barcelona (2019); Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City (2018); ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2017); and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogotá (2016).
By invitation, Sánchez has presented her art-research projects at leading institutions such as the Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 (2023), Freie Universität, Berlin (2022), the Department of Sound of the School of the Art Institute Chicago (2021), the University of the Arts London (2020), and ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2017) among others. Sánchez has authored five books and curated exhibitions and transdisciplinary conferences. As a Samuel Beckett scholar, Sánchez has extensively studied Beckett’s electronic work and served on the Samuel Beckett Society’s Executive Committee from 2019 to 2023.
Sánchez has served as a member of the Advisory Board of RE:SOURCE: The 10th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, Venice (2023); as a juror for the Icelandic Research Fund (2023); as Artist Talks chair of the 27th International Symposium on Electronic Arts ISEA, Barcelona (2022); and as designer and chair of the Sound and Voice: Art Practices and Politics track, of RE:SOUND: The 9th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, Aalborg (2019). Sánchez is associate professor at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and teaches New Media at Kunstakademiet, Universitetet i Bergen. Before moving to Trondheim, Sánchez was Professor and Chair of the Department of Arts and Humanities at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City.
Since 2021, Sánchez has been a member of Norske Billedkunstnere NBK. She is a member of the National System of Art Creators and the National System of Researchers from the National Council for the Humanities, Sciences and Technology in Mexico. Sánchez is preparing a major retrospective exhibition at Galeria Miejska Arsenal in Poznań (2024), and later this year, will be an artist-in-residence in Berlin through a grant from the City of Trondheim.
