The Office for Curating

Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk

Within the Sound of Your Voice Parallel Project for the Marrakech Biennale 2014 Biennale: 26 February 31 March 2014 Opening reception: 25 February 2014, from 18.00 Participants & Team With works and contributions by Milena Bonilla & Luisa Ungar, Dina Danish & Gogi Dzodzuashvili, Dora Garca, Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Marcellvs L., Lubomyr Melnyk, Clare Noonan, O Grivo, Daniel Steegmann and Joana Saraiva, Triin Tamm Curated by Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk and Tiago de Abreu Pinto Design by Quinten Swagerman and Thomas van der Vlis Audio mastering by Vitor Munhoz Venue Le 18, Derb el Ferrane Riad Laarouss, 40000, Marrakech, Morocco le18marrakech@gmail.com | +212 5243 89864 Opening hours: TuesdaySunday, from 10.00 until 19.00 Introduction We are very proud to announce the exhibition Within the Sound of Your Voice, taking place in the context of the forthcoming Marrakech Biennale 2014. This Parallel Project is being developed as a portable exhibition, taking the shape of a vinyl record with an integral and designed exhibition architecture in the lineage of Christian Chruxin and Bernhard Leitner. By inviting thirteen international artists to make a contribution, the project seeks to comment on the nature of the site, that being Marrakech and the context of the biennial specifically, and moreover to test the potential of commissioning, distributing and circulating works through speech, sound poetry and composition. Revolving around the central theme of the biennale Where are we now?, the project aims to transpose the artists voice to another site and sound carrier, denote ones geographical underpinnings and position, and, most importantly, let the visitor come to terms with his or her own time and space by making the direct surroundings strange, more resonant Curatorial Statement Dear Reader, In less than fivehundred words we will try to convey our intentions with the exhibition Within the Sound of Your Voice, through writing, whereas the exhibition is composed of sound works. That is all right for us. The main difference is that the reading time for this piece of writing would take, on average, three minutes and fourteen seconds, whereas to hear the exhibition would take at least thirtyfour, perhaps thirtyfive minutes: to be established soon. Well, that is equally all right, as these forms of expression are different means to an end, leading to different ways of understanding, or misunderstanding. In any case, even if you are holding this sheet before you in the exhibition, the act of description remains troublesome as you are about to hear an exhibition, and not necessarily see it, or read about it. That being said. Lets start. Within the Sound of Your Voice is a portable group exhibition at thirtythree rounds per minute. Firstly, the exhibition is portable: it is a vinyl record, having a weight of around fourhundred and forty grams. The vinyl is protected by a sleeve,
Bernhard Leitner, Soundcube 70, 1970

Christian Chruxin, Portable Gallery, 1963

The Office for Curating

Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk
which normally also serves to express and illustrate its contents textually, visually, aesthetically. The sleeve of this exhibition has been designed to incorporate a third dimension: an architecture that can be unpacked and enveloped in another space, becoming a space in and by itself, or a space within a space, so to speak. Secondly, the group is comprised of thirteen artists, including the voices of, sometimes literally speaking, sometimes indirectly or metaphorically speaking: Milena Bonilla and Luisa Ungar, Dina Danish and Gogi Dzodzuashvili, Dora Garca, Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Marcellvs L., Lubomyr Melnyk, Clare Noonan, O Grivo, Daniel Steegmann and Joana Saraiva, and Triin Tamm. We have made an open invitation to the artists to contribute a total of ten works that are sought to comment on the nature of the site, that being the actual exhibition site, and expanding from that, the context of the Marrakech Biennale and the city as a whole. Responding to the main question Where are we now?, as posed by the organisation of the biennale, we felt an urge to explore a different exhibition format, to compose an analogy of examples that would allow us to come to terms with time and space more dimensionally, by making its context seem strange, less coherent and grounded. In other words still, to make the listener the subject of this sequenced experiment, to turn ones epistemological maps, confront ones preconceived knowledges, and perhaps most importantly, prompt and trigger a certain curiosity for the things in the world through notknowing, not understanding... Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk & Tiago de Abreu Pinto Curators of Within the Sound of Your Voice