Un· Tuning Together. Practicing listening with Pauline Oliveros

from September 20th to December 2nd 2023

Curators: Maud Jacquin and Émilie Renard

With No Anger, Julia E Dyck, Célin Jiang, Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos, Anna Holveck, Violaine Lochu, Emily Mast, Lauren Tortil and Christopher Willes with Ellen Furey and Brendan Jensen, with works by Pauline Oliveros and con­tri­bu­tions from IONE and Deep Listeners Ximena Alarcón, Sylvie Decaux, Lisa Barnard Kelley

Inaugural off-site per­for­mance: Sunday, September 17, from 2pm to 5pm
For a Helter Skelter Rain, an envi­ron­mental con­cert by Lauren Tortil along the Canal Saint Martin.
Exhibition opening: Friday, September 22, from 4pm to 9pm

This group exhi­bi­tion is inspired by a unique con­cept of lis­tening that the American exper­i­mental com­poser Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016) refers to as Deep Listening, which, in her words, "involves going beneath the sur­face of what is heard." At the heart of this prac­tice is an acute aware­ness of the fact that there is always more to hear "beneath the sur­face" of the audible, in the recesses of the acoustic envi­ron­ment. The Deep Listening expe­ri­ence is open to new forms of sen­so­ri­ality and rep­re­sents a com­mit­ment to con­tinue devel­oping our lis­tening skills through scores that, rather than guiding the inter­pre­ta­tion of music, sug­gest atten­tional strate­gies and ways of lis­tening to our­selves, others and the envi­ron­ment. In Oliveros’ work, the prac­tice of atten­tion is most often con­ducted in a col­lec­tive set­ting. In most of her com­po­si­tions, she pro­vides open-ended indi­ca­tions that must be nego­ti­ated col­lec­tively by the per­formers, involving a great deal of atten­tion and recep­tivity to others and to what is hap­pening.

The exhi­bi­tion "Un· Tuning Together" brings Pauline Oliveros’ prac­tice face to face with those of artists whose research reflects and expands on her pro­posals. Each artist is invited to inhabit the entire space and to share with par­tic­i­pating audi­ences prac­tices that bring into play the prin­ci­ples of impro­vi­sa­tion and mutual lis­tening within a group. Their pro­posals alter­nate in a pro­gramme of col­lec­tive work and public per­for­mances. Oliveros’ work will also be prac­tised col­lec­tively through reg­ular ses­sions ded­i­cated to the expe­ri­ence of Sonic Meditations. Her work has become a kind of cat­a­lyst for thinking col­lec­tively - with artists, researchers, par­tic­i­pating audi­ences and the Bétonsalon team - about how bodies involved in these lis­tening prac­tices can gen­erate changes on both per­sonal and social levels.

Pauline Oliveros and the ♀ Ensemble performing the Sonic Meditations, 1970, Rancho Santa Fe, CA. Pauline Oliveros Papers. Mandeville Special Collections | Library, Université de Californie, San Diego. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of The Pauline OliverosTrust -(PaulineOliveros.us -Members ASCAP)

This exhi­bi­tion is the second part of "Dissolving your ear plugs", curated by Maud Jacquin with Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre, at the Musée d’art de Joliette, Québec, from June 11 to September 4, 2023.

Exhibition part­ners:

The exhi­bi­tion is pro­duced in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Musée d’art de Joliette, Quebec. It is sup­ported by ADAGP - Société d’auteurs française pour les arts visuels, the Fondation d’entreprise Pernod Ricard, the Ministère des Relations inter­na­tionales et de la Francophonie du Québec and the Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères de la République française, as part of the Commission per­ma­nente de coopéra­tion franco-québé­coise (CPCFQ), the Institut Français and the City of Paris, and the inter­na­tional res­i­den­cies pro­gramme at the Centre d’accueil et d’échanges des Récollets de la Ville de Paris; and a part­ner­ship with the IAC for the Space Brain Laboratory.