18/3/2004
Friedrich Jurgenson / Carl Michael von Hausswolff
Portikus, Frankfurt
Audioscopic Research Archive / Radar Works. Friedrich Jürgenson (1903-1987) was a philosopher, archaeologist, linguist and documentary filmmaker. Above all, he counts as the pioneer of trans-communication research and discoverer of the electronic voice phenomenon (EVP). At Portikus, Carl Michael von Hausswolff places the tape archive at the centre of the work, which he supplements with a work of his own. A radar set up in the entrance area of the Leinwandhaus draws an abstract image that continuously changes slightly and is projected in one of the exhibition spaces.
Audioscopic Research Archive / Radar Works
Friedrich Jürgenson (1903-1987) was a philosopher, archaeologist, linguist and documentary filmmaker. Above all, he counts as the pioneer of trans-communication research and discoverer of the electronic voice phenomenon (EVP). In 1959, while trying to record his singing on tape, he for the first time came upon inexplicable flashes of noises and voices on the sound carriers. He later began recognising the voices that mostly spoke a combination of German, Swedish, Italian, English, and Russian; he assigned them to certain personalities based on what they said and made transcriptions. In spring of 1960, one of these voices suggested to him to from now on use the radio, or rather frequencies not occupied by radio transmitters, as a medium for his research. He published the results under the title 'The Voices from Space' and later as 'Radio and Microphone Contact with the Dead '. When Jürgenson died in Sweden in 1987, he left behind innumerable notes and several hundred tapes with his recordings.
Since the late 1970s, Carl Michael von Hausswolff has been working at the interface between fine art, experimental electronic music and performance. His installations often have the characteristic of experimental set-ups that are not so much interested in a completed work, but rather in exposing acoustic, visual and socio-cultural phenomena. Von Hausswolff frequently collaborates with artist colleagues and musicians, such as Leif Elggren, Andrew McKenzie, Graham Lewis, Kim Cascone and Grönlund & Nisunen. Von Hausswolff also works as a curator. In 2000, for instance, he curated a comprehensive retrospective of the entire body of work of Friedrich Jürgenson at the Färgfabriken in Stockholm, and in 2003, the 2nd Göteborg Biennale.
At Portikus, Carl Michael von Hausswolff places the tape archive at the centre of the work, which he supplements with a work of his own. A radar set up in the entrance area of the Leinwandhaus draws an abstract image that continuously changes slightly and is projected in one of the exhibition spaces. This installation is part of a series of 'Radar Works' which von Hausswolff has realised and recorded over several years at different places around the world. With the installation at Portikus, Frankfurt will also become part of an absurd archive of radar images that, in an ironical and poetic way, attempt to record more than the given architectural situation. The interest in and the quest for intermediate realms that can only be grasped in a limited manner by models of explanation connect Hausswolff’s work with that of Friedrich Jürgenson.
Carl Michael von Hausswolff (born 1956) lives and works in Stockholm.
Opening Friday, March 19, 2004, at 8 a.m.
Portikus im Leinwandhaus Weckmarkt 17 D-60311 Frankfurt am Main
Telefon: +49-69-2199 87-59/-60 Fax: +49-69-2199 87-61