Klangkörper is a non-visual performance combining a surround sound and touch choreography interacting together.
There is a choreography of touch interventions made by the performers directly on the body of the visitor (who is the primary stage of the performance); the movements of the sounds within the room (the secondary performance space) are choreographed in surround through a multi-channel speaker setup (in quadraphony).
The piece uses as a starting point a sound-touch translation process first developed for sections of Pièce Touchée no 2 (2010). Borrowing from those experiments, sound parameters (like loudness, duration, timber, pitch, energetic profile) are translated into touch parameters (pressure, duration, body location, temperature, friction, dryness/wetness etc.) and mapped on the body, proposing a "synesthetic" translation of the sound on the body of the visitor.
In Pièce Touchée no 2, the musical process explored was mostly based on a unison relationship between touch and sound. A haptic translation happened simultaneously, in synchronicity with the sounds heard. Otherwise sound or touch were performed alone, or one after the other. There were simultaneous events and counterpoint within the touch interventions and within the music, but the touch- sound relationship was basically homophonic, one of unison.
Klangkörper experiments with more complex composition devices. A dialogue relationship is created between sound and touch. Besides synchronous translation and silent sound translation, the pieces presents also alternating dialogues:
-touch phrases answer musical phrases, also answering locations and directions in the surround space with locations on the body (producing an antiphonic relationship).
-Sounds and touch also accompanying each other, rather than translating each other, their relationship being carefully calculated (complementing, cueing or opposing each other).
-Starting from a “translation” relationship, the sounds and their haptic translation are played in an out of sync (or in and out of phase), a compositional device known from minimalistic music.
The sound track and the haptic choreography are not meant to be two independent, self-sufficient parts. They are intertwined, have a dialogue with each other, and function only together. Touch becomes music, and the sound becomes a form of touch.
Choreography, Sound: Kenji Ouellet
Performance: Katharina Weinhuber, Kenji Ouellet
Press/Visitors comments:
“A meditative experience, where the sounds reverberate in the skin and shivers are tuned to the sound vibrations.”
“A fascinating experience combining the senses, the idea of space, listening and presence. Creates another relationship to art.”
“Something in space? An alien abduction? Felt like you were otherworldly creatures trying to tell me something”.
“At times the touch felt so connected to the music that you cannot separate (the sound) from the performer.”
“The piece establishes deep trust between complete strangers. “
“An opportunity to remember that I have a body. Thank you!”
Kenji Ouellet
September 13, 2024
Carrara (IT)
Onirica Film Festival
June 15, 2024
Los Angeles
Film Maudit
March 14-31, 2024
Clermont-Ferrand (FR)
Videoformes
February 16- April 21, 2024
York Art Gallery, York (UK)
Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition
November 17-25, 2023
Lublin (PL)
Lublin Film Festival
November 14-19, 2023
Poznan (PL)
Short Waves Festival
November 8-12, 2023
York (UK)
Aesthetica Short Film Festival
November 1-5, 2023
Berlin (DE)
Zeichen der Nacht Int. Festival
October 27, 2023- April 21, 2024
Museum unter Tage Bochum (DE)
Die Stadt ist anderswo (group exhibition)
October 26-31, 2023
Namur (BE)
7ème Aaargh Film Festival
October 20-24, 2023
Yerevan (ARM)
Yerevan Int. Short Film Festival
October 17-22, 2023
Halle (DE)
Monstrale Festival
October 12-14, 2023
Novi Sad (RS)
October 10, 2023
Munich (DE)
September-26 - October 1, 2023
Baku (AZE)
Dokubaku Int. Documentary Film Fest.
September 14-23, 2023
Vienna (A)
Reaktor Int. Film Festival
September 8-10, 2023
Kanazawa (JP)
Kanazawa Film Festival
August 15-20,
2023
Boulder (US)
Mimesis Documentary Festival
April 10-16,
2023
Athens (OH/US)
Athens International Film and Video Festival
February 23-25, 2023
Lincoln (UK)
Indie-Lincs Int. Film Festival
February 15-19, 2023
Milan (IT)
Innuendo Int. Film Festival
November 10-27, 2022
Granada (ES)
Cinemistica
November 8, 2022
Lisbon
November 1-6, 2022
York (UK)
Aesthetica Short Film Festival
October 14-16, 2022
Lund (SE)
Lund Architecture Film Festival
October 5,
2022
Tokyo
Tokyo Film Awards
September 6-18, 2022
Paris
September 1-9,
2022
Split (HR)
August 5-13,
2022
Prizren
(Kosovo)
April 20-24, 2022
Bremen
Filmfest Bremen
March 19+22, 2022
Regensburg
Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg
October 26, 2021
Garage Museum of Contemporary
Art
October 27, 2021
Multimedia Art Museum (Moscow)
Shnit Film Festival
October 2 - November 21,
2021
Arsenale Nord (Venice)
Arte Laguna Prize exhibition
(postponed from March 2020)
June 11, 2021 - August 15, 2021
Haus am Kleistpark (Berlin)
Deceleration (group exhibition)
March 7 - April 4, 2021
Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen)
Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition
December 18, 2020 - January
10, 2020
Back Forward Rewind
(online anniversary exhibition)
August 22, 2020 7pm Moscow
time
Pushkin State Museum /
WWW
Broadcast of 3 of my video works
(Duration: 24 hours)
Kinofilm
Festival Manchester 2020 postponed to May 10-16,
2021
November 13-18,
2019
Wilmington (N.C.)
Cucalorus Film Festival
October 11, 2019
Nice
Festival C'est trop court
September 28-29, 2019
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki Cinedance International
September 19, 2019
Bremen
Filmfest Bremen
September 4-8, 2019
Bucharest
Bucharest Int. Dance Film Festival
May 25 - July 18, 2019
Städische Galerie Bremen
July 8-Sept. 4, 2019
Warsaw
On Art Film Festival
July 24-28, 2019
Manitoba
Glmli Film Festival
June 28, 2019
Trieste
20th Shorts Int. Film
Festival
June 22, 2019
Bangkok
17th Signs of the Night Festival
May 9-16, 2019
Skopje
October 14, 2018 - February 3, 2019
Marl Media Art Awards Exhibition skulpturenmuseum-glaskasten-marl
July-December 2018
Hannover
December 12-16, 2018
Belgrade
November 27-30, 2018
Lisbon
October 20-27, 2018
Istanbul
International Architecture and
May 18 - September 30,
2018
York Art Gallery
(UK)
Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition