57

‘As you listen, the particles of sound decide to be heard.’ - Pauline Oliveros

‍

In the direct vicinity of the Palais des Beaux Arts Wien, the past yells, the present whistles, and the future hums. Its sound has a short term memory, each gust of wind wiping clean the previous note. If you listen carefully enough though, what can you hear about its multi-layered history, and how does listening ‘affect what is sounding’?

For the collection of the PdBA, Ricarda Denzer aims to create proximity to the past by listening to the immediate surroundings of the building in the third district. Through on-site research, recording experiments, and an audio walk, Denzer will search for ‘ear witnesses’ that inhabit both the material and immaterial aspects of the Palais des Beaux Arts Wien.

‍

Focusing on the porous relationships between source material, sonic texture, and testimony, “Ear Witnesses” explores listening as a way to ‘enliven the environment’ by opening channels of perception that otherwise remain hidden from view. Because of the temporary nature of sound and the building’s lack of audible clues, Denzer’s ongoing practice of para-listening will continue her work into excavating and examining what and how we hear the ungraspable depths of a place, and how listening can function as a creative process of participation in the world.

‍

The score “Close your eyes, listen – O.” was created as part of a site-specific work for the collection of the Palais des Beaux Arts. Ricarda Denzer's O-Research – is an auditory practice, presented here as a collection of handwritten and spoken O's. “O remains ‘always the same’, yet is constantly changing. It is ‘inconceivable’, chaotic, formless, and infinite.  If hearing means grasping the meaning of something, according to J.L. Nancy, then listening means “being attuned to a possible meaning that is therefore not immediately accessible.” (R. D.)