Thierry Raspail, the Lyon Biennale’s artistic director, has invited Emma Lavigne, director of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, France, to curate the second volume of the trilogy devoted to modernity. The 2017 edition of the Biennale de Lyon reinterprets the term “modern," setting it in the context of a fluid and extended modernity. The Lyon Biennale also features platforms, associated exhibitions, workshops, and a reception-theory lab.
Doug Aitken's work focuses on landscape-related issues. Using refined technological devices, he operates and enters into dialogue with natural phenomena. Whether they are film works or sound installations, his various projects, which are often large-scale, come from careful observation of the locations he chooses: "What fascinates me is the process: starting from a given place without knowing what it is going to come out of it."
Sonic Fountain is a crater dug out of the floor and filled with milky white liquid, above which nine taps, arranged in a grid, drip according to a precisely written score. In the water, microphones record the sound of the water dripping, and broadcast it direct into the space, as for a concert. As the artist has explained, Sonic Fountain "is a deliberately abstract work that lays the architecture bare to reveal its rhythm, its tempo and its language."
With backing from 303 Gallery, New York
Produced with the support of Serge Ferrari and Vicat