DOVE
Rifugio antiaereo
in Piazza I Maggio 7

ORARI DI APERTURA
16 – 24 giugno
da giovedì a domenica ore 15 – 19

INAUGURAZIONE
Sabato 16 giugno ore 12.30

STEVE RODEN
the walls with sand in a single neutral color

installazione sonora (2018)
in collaborazione con Spazioersetti

È piuttosto strano creare un’installazione sonora senza poterla ascoltare di persona; ma di certo mi piace l’idea che il luogo dell’allestimento giocherà una parte fondamentale nel risultato di quest’opera. Mi sento un po’ come un ragazzino che aspetta di aprire un regalo di compleanno senza sapere cosa contiene. Molti dei miei colleghi cercano il controllo su ciò che fanno, io spero piuttosto di venirne sorpreso. È un po’ come cuocere dei biscotti, non da parte di un pasticcere ma di un compositore di suoni. John Cage ha scritto una ricetta per fare dei biscotti macrobiotici che usa processi casuali e posso dirvi che funziona e che sono piuttosto facili da fare. Ciò che amo di quella ricetta è che non hanno mai lo stesso sapore. Certo bisogna avere una preferenza per la sorpresa a dispetto del controllo. Come in questo caso si conoscono gli ingredienti, ma non sappiamo come staranno combinati assieme. Ho pensato di creare dei piccoli suoni con il mio sintetizzatore modulare e mi sono immaginato che potessero comportarsi come animaletti che si aggirano nel tunnel e i cui movimenti vengono amplificati dall’enorme riverbero di quello spazio. Ho processato i suoni semplicemente pensando alle possibilità che le mie musiche potessero andare d’accordo o meno con l’acustica del tunnel. Vorrei che i miei suoni non fossero sempre presenti. Anzi invito il pubblico a non fare attenzione esclusivamente ad essi ma anche alla “voce” del tunnel, alla sua personalità acustica. Sono felice di poter esporre in questo spazio dalle eccezionali caratteristiche sonore. – Steve Roden

Steve Roden in his painting studio in Southern California - photo Leslie Williamson
Steve Roden – foto di Leslie Williamson

Steve Roden è un protagonista di primo piano dell’arte contemporanea. Nato a Los Angeles e residente a Pasadena, i suoi lavori includono varie forme espressive tra cui pittura, scultura, disegno video/film e audio installazioni.
Attivo fin dagli anni ottanta ha esposto le proprie opere in mostre personali e collettive nei principali musei del mondo tra cui il Centre Georges Pompidou di Parigi, il San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, l’UCLA Hammer Museum di Los Angeles, il Museum of Contemporary Art EMST di Atene, la Singuhr-Horgalerie di Berlino, La Casa Encendida di Madrid, il San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, il Pacific Design Center, la Henry Art Gallery, il Mak center for Art and Architecture/Schindler House di Los Angeles.

I suoi lavori sono parte delle collezioni permanenti del Los Angeles County Museum of Art, del Museum of Contemporary Art di San Diego, del Museum of Contemporary Art di Los Angeles, della Henry Art Gallery di Seattle, del Blanton Museum of Art ad Austin, del Palm Springs Museum, The Pomona College Museum of Art, The ASU University Art Museum di Tempe, del The National Museum of Contemporary Art di Atene.
Ha insegnato e tiene corsi in numerose università e istituzioni californiane tra cui la UCLA, l’Art Center College of Design, la Otis College of Art, la Claremont Graduate University, la UC Santa Barbara. È stato invitato a tenere corsi e conferenze alla Harvard University, il Columbia College di New York, l’ University of Illinois di Chicago, il San Francisco Art Institute, la Virginia Commonwealth University e molte altre. I suoi testi e le sue analisi sulla sound-art sono considerati un punto di riferimento per critici e artisti di tutto il mondo.

Nelle sue musiche utilizza piccoli oggetti, spazi architettonici, registrazioni d’ambiente che rende astratti grazie a processi di manipolazione elettronica per creare nuovi paesaggi sonori. dal 1993 ha pubblicato una lunga serie di opere discografiche con il nome di “in be tween noise” per varie etichette discografiche.

WHERE
anti air-raid shelter
Piazza I Maggio 7

OPEN
June 16th – 24th
From Thursday to Sunday 3 – 7pm

INAUGURATION
Saturday June 16th at 12.30am

STEVE RODEN
the walls with sand in a single neutral color

Sound installation  (2018)
in collaboration with Spazioersetti

It’s a bit strange to create a sound piece without hearing it in person; but of course that I certainly like the idea that the site will play such a major part of the sound. For me I feel like a child waiting to open a birthday gift. What could it be. While many of my friends are looking for control, I am much more hoping to be surprised. The idea is a bit like making cookies. Not by a baker but a maker of sound. When I found that john cage made a recipe for macrobiotic cookies. Now I can tell you that cage’s recipe is pretty easy to make. And what I love about them is that they never taste the same. Of course as someone who veers away from control but towards surprises. In some sense, we have our ingredients – but we will have to see how the ingredients will come together. I felt it would try to make some small pieces with my modular, and I figured they would be like cats. Moving and sleeping. And all magnified through this cosmic space that I will process my sounds simply based of how myself and the space will be friends or bad partners. I hope my sounds will not be sounding all the time. And please pay attention not only my sound but also allowing the space to sing too. I am grateful to be able to let me play in this amazing sound space.

Steve Roden is a visual and sound artist from Los Angeles, living in Pasadena. His work includes painting, drawing, sculpture, film/video, sound installation, text and performance.

In the sound works, singular source materials such as objects, architectural spaces, and field recordings, are abstracted through humble electronic processes to create new audio spaces, or possible landscapes. The sound works present themselves with an aesthetic Roden has described as lower case – sound concerned with subtlety and the quiet activity of listening.

Roden has been exhibiting his visual and sound works since the mid 1980’s, and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally, including: Mercosur Biennial Porto Alegre Brazil, Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, UCLA Hammer Museum Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art EMST Athens Greece, Singuhr-Horgalerie in Parochial Berlin, Center for Book Arts New York, The Kitchen New York, Pomona College Museum of Art, La Casa Encendida Madrid, Susanne Vielmetter LA and Berlin Projects, Studio la Citta Verona Italy, and others.

Roden has performed his soundworks at various arts spaces and experimental music festivals worldwide including: Serpentine Gallery London, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, DCA Dundee Scotland, Redcat Los Angeles, Crawford Gallery Cork Ireland, as well as performance tours of Brazil and Japan. Recent performances include John Cage’s Cartridge Music with composer Mark Trayle at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and a tribute to Rolf Julius at the Hamburger Banhof Berlin. Since 1993, Roden has released numerous CDs under his own name as well as under the moniker “in be tween noise” on various record labels internationally.

Recent has created numerous site-specific sound works for spaces such as MOCA at the Pacific Design Center in response to a group of paintings by Mark Rothko, the Henry Art Gallery’s James Turrell Skyspace, the Mak center for Art and Architecture/Schindler House in Los Angeles, a live collaboration with Stephen Vitiello in a room of 50 pieces of sculpture by Donald Judd at Chinati, Daniel Libeskind’s Run Run Shaw new media building at City University of Hong Kong, a sound/sculpture/drawing installation for Thomas U. Walter’s 1848 building at Girard College Philadelphia for the Hidden City festival, and a permanent public artwork at Hayvenhurst Park, in West Hollywood California.

Roden received his MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 1989, and his BFA from Otis Parsons in Los Angeles in 1986. Over the past 15 years he has taught both graduate and undergraduate courses at numerous Southern California institutions including: UCLA, Art Center College of Design, Otis College of Art, Claremont Graduate University, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Long Beach, and others. He has lectured and/or been a visiting artist at numerous universities including: Harvard, Columbia College NY, University of Illinois Chicago, University Southern California, Cal Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, University Texas Austin, Virginia Commonwealth University, and others.

Roden’s works are in the permanent collection of the following institutions: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; The Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA; The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, Austin, TX; The Palm Springs Museum, Palm Springs, CA; The Pomona College Museum of Art, Pomona, CA; The ASU University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ; The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece.

Roden’s artwork is currently represented through Susanne Vielmetter LA Projects, Los Angeles; and CRG Gallery, New York.