PUBLIC RETREAT:
Jo Mikkel Sjaastad Huse (NO)
Nicole Cecilie Bitsch Pedersen (DK)
Johanna Fager (SE)
7–30 March 2024
Oksasenkatu 11 00100 Helsinki
Wed–Fri 13–18
Sat–Sun 12–17
Opening 7 March 17–22
PUBLIC RETREAT
...through the eye of the ear.
click, stop,
))))!?
Click. Click. Click. Stop.
The room shrinks.
Echoes.
What does this city sound like inside your head?
How would you draw it? Imagine, conceptualize and feel and dream and nightmare it?
Without even trying, we build whole worlds from spatial auditory memories.
Each of us follow our own internal maps, subconsciously herded by urban sonic markers.
Ding ding ding....
broooom broooom broom, beep, whirr, ta ta ta ta
*reverberant mumble of restaurant hall, shopping mall, train station*
*constant backdrop of motorized trafc*
*light bright vocalization of wind*
You hear the cars, the honking of their horns. You hear the loud bangs and the persisting sound from a pneumatic drill. The presence of your immediate surroundings. But do you hear the ticking of the trafc light? The chirping birds in the tree outside your favorite café? The slightly resonant thump of stepping on a manhole cover? The sudden acoustic change when you ride your bicycle through a tunnel, embedding you in tiny echoes.
Listening and not listening lets us meander between different forms of presence. Sounds are constantly being produced, and examining the nature of these sounds can be used to map out societal and biological conditions, culture and ideology – though in a muddy, translucent, intangible manner.
PUBLIC RETREAT ...through the eye of the ear. click, stop, ) ) ) ) !? is an immersive sound experience about how we sense the world with our ears.
During the exhibition period, radio shows will be broadcasted on IDA Helsinki 8. March 13:00-14:00 with corresponding collective listening event in the gallery, and Lähiradio 29. March, time and listening event tba. /// Ultrasonic listening workshop – hear like a bat! /// collective listening events /// zine workshop exploring local sonotopes /// soundlistening (not sightseeing) /// ...and more! Updated schedule on fb-event, instagram (see QR-code) and in the gallery space– also, don’t hesitate to ask us.
About Public Retreat:
PUBLIC RETREAT is an interdisciplinary art project exploring our (human and more-than-human) common auditory urban environments.
Through artistic research, sound works, radio broadcasts, workshops and exhibitions, our aim is to engage fellow citizens to contemplate on the role of sounds in our lives, from their purely physical properties to their emotional, psychological and physiological impact.
Earlier projects include semi-utopian architectural plans for an entire new neighborhood; an absurd elevator pitch for an inverted skyscraper – a subterranean earthscraper – that could t all of mankind; a sound walk about graveyards; handsewn site specic and locally distributed magazines; and a radio show about city planning, voiced in part by an enthusiastic bird.
PUBLIC RETREAT is:
Jo Mikkel Sjaastad Huse (b. 1991, NO), visual artist and writer working primarily within the elds of text, installation, performance and sound. Huse has education from art academies in Oslo, Bergen, Tromsø and Stockholm. Huse stages objects and creatures, and lets them speak on his behalf about work and leisure, and the position of the animal in a human centered world. Recently exhibited in Palmera (NO), and Hjorten Sculpture Park (SE). Upcoming exhibitions in Oplandia Center for Contemporary Art in Lillehammer and BO, Oslo.
Nicole Cecilie Bitsch Pedersen (b. 1990, DK), composer, visual-, and sound artist exploring the interweaved relationship between nature, sound, and technology. Pedersen holds a Master's degree in composition from the Danish Institute of Electronic Music (DIEM) and a postmaster in public art from OPI Lab at Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, Sweden. She has recently exhibited at Skovhuset (DK), SPARK (SE), Nordic Music Days (FO), and received grants from the Danish Arts Foundation and Danish Composers’ Society.
Johanna Fager (b. 1982, SE), architect and artist working with public art, spatial installations and complex architectural projects. Her focus is often on the human experience of space(s) and their sequences, materiality, sound and the political context. She is educated at KTH School of Architecture, Royal Institute of Art (SE), and Academy of Art Architecture and Design (CZ). Currently working on a site specic public artwork for Svenska Margaretakyrkan Oslo (NO). She recently received a research grant from Royal Institute of Art (SE).
Future works include 12 sound pieces for radio on radiOrakel (NO). Residencies at Sound Art Lab, Struer (DK) and participation in a symposium on sound and listening. Listening events, sound/radio Radio Sydväst Stockholm (SE) and more.
PUBLIC RETREAT is generously supported by Nordic Culture Fund, Nordic Culture Point, OCA (Ofce for Contemporary Art, Norway), Danish Composers Society, Danish Arts Council, OPI Lab and Sound Art Lab, Struer.
Collaborators and conversation partners to PUBLIC RETREAT; Prof. Ville Pulkki Aalto University, Sound Art Lab Struer, Of Public Interest (OPI), Radio Sydväst Lars Lengberg, Lähiradio, IDA radio, Maria Morberg, Per Hedfors, Platform Stockholm, radiOrakel.
Instagram: @public_retreat
