“FEHN/6”. With her first exhibition in Denmark, Gisle Nataas has created the work Fehn/6, an installation that reinterprets Sverre Fehn’s architecture through sound. In the exhibition Fehn/6, sounds from Sverre Fehn’s architecture, use of materials and spatialities are recorded and then projected into the materials, surfaces and spaces of the current exhibition space, which creates a concrete encounter between Fehn’s architecture and the exhibition space. It asks the question – What is the sound of architecture? The sound installation thus introduces the visitors to sounds of glass, concrete and metal from Fehn’s project Storhamarlåven at Domkireodden in Hamar. The project is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/DOGA. Exhibition opening and live performance: Friday 17 March 2023. Exhibition period: 17 March – 1 April 2023
“The sound of a building” / The Danish journal for sound art Seismograf by journalist Anne Holm wrote a short review in Seismograf about the installation
The sound of a building
Gisle Nataas: »Fehn/6«
By Anne Holm
Houses are full of sound, even if they are completely still. Floors that creak, boards that give way – sounds that you are sometimes so used to that you don’t notice them at all. But when, like the Norwegian architect and sound artist Gisle Nataas, you put geophones on walls and beams and record the sounds that are not only in the houses, but also in the materials – concrete, glass, stone, wood – then the architecture literally gets a voice.
Nataa’s installation Fehn/6 is created from sounds from the Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn’s museum building at and around the ruins of the Cathedral in Hamar a little north of Oslo, on a headland by Norway’s largest lake, Mjøsa. At the opening of the exhibition, Nataas improvised with his recorded sounds – concrete rumbling, a key being turned, woodwork rustling, steps across a floor disappearing into the distance. Music by realid has long traditions, this one is organic and rumbling, calming and image-making. What’s that pounding? What’s that whizzing? And where do those steps disappear to? Who is it that goes…? It is not big and wild, but tells something about the sensuality that good architecture also contains.
Vernissage – sound performance
Project data:
- Title: “Fehn/6”
- Sound installation and sound performance at Akademisk Arkitektforening, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Venue: Åbenrå 34, 1124 København, Denmark
- Date: November 13th to December 1st 2023
- Invitation from Akademisk Arkitektforening, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Credit to Dorte Sibast, Hanne Vestergaard and Jesper Guldhammer for for help, discussions and input throughout the process
- The project is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/DOGA