The Sonorous, The Audible, and The Silenced

Venue: Le Conservatoire National à Rayonnement Régional
9 October – 29 November 2020
Satellites: Bar Le Perrin, Chez Fun Funk, La Brasserie Communale, Moon Roof café
11 September – 29 November 2020

For two centuries, The Palace of Arts has been home to many of the city’s educational and cultural institutions: museums, libraries, archives, ballets and now a music school.

Throughout the building, rehearsals can be heard, coming from different rooms and resonating through its walls—at times clearly audible, at others silenced. The School: The Sonorous, The Audible and The Silenced unfolds throughout the building’s neo-classical architecture encapsulating some of its previous functions. Simultaneously charged with the potentialities of the past, it becomes a multi-layered sonic space where works in progress are paralleled by virtuoso performances.

For most of human history, creating, performing, and listening to music has been a social activity. Over the past 400 years, orchestral music has developed its own set of governing principles. One might even think of the orchestra, soloist and conductor as a social body in itself, composed by clear hierarchies, rules and scripts. But it is not without its own historical and ideological tensions: between discipline and spontaneity, between individualism and collectivity. What does it mean to act in concert? How can we imagine a social virtuosity?

Participants: Yalda Afsah* (1983, DE, IR), Mounir Ayache* (1991, FR), Mohamed Bourouissa* (1978, DZ/FR), Julien Creuzet* (1986, FR), Benjamin de Burca & Barbara Wagner* (1975, DE / 1980, BR), Ymane Fakhir* (1969, MA), Tuan Andrew Nguyen* (1976, VN), Reena Spaulings.  

At the satellites from the 11th of Sepetmber on: Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff* (1988, US / 1987, US) at Bar Le Perrin, Chez Fun Funk, La Brasserie Communale, Philippe Pujol* (1975, FR) (online), Sara Sadik* (1994, FR) at Moon Roof café