Sonic Youth Etc. : Sensational Fix
 

SONIC YOUTH ETC. : SENSATIONAL FIX

The exhibition SONIC YOUTH ETC. : SENSATIONAL FIX focuses on the multidisciplinary activities of the groundbreaking experimental guitar band Sonic Youth since its formation in 1981. It features the band's collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers, designers and musicians, as well as a choice of other works selected by the band. Through the multidisciplinary output of Sonic Youth and related works by other artists in the exhibition, an alternative history of contemporary culture is being uncovered in which the division between 'high art' and 'low art' is being called into question, while issues are explored such as teenage rebellion, adolescent wanderlust, gender, fame, fashion, sexuality, and religion. In the exhibition, those different themes related to the band are presented in several chapters based on Sonic Youth song titles, which form satellites around a central space that focuses on Sonic Youth paraphernalia.

CENTRAL SECTION The central section of the exhibition focuses on the band's activities and contains an ample selection of Sonic Youth paraphernalia that illustrates their comprehensive heterogeneous output and collaborations with other artists, while at the same time it already introduces themes that are explored in depth in further sections of the exhibition. Among the materials exhibited are: all artwork for Sonic Youth album covers, a selection of early flyers, fanzines, posters, t-shirts, and writings by the band members, as well as photos of the band by artists such as James Welling, Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola, and Richard Kern, among others. A video compilation of live material of essential Sonic Youth performances of the last 25 years, selected by Thurston Moore, is projected in this space.

SATELLITE 1 By the early 1980s, an alternative scene emerged in downtown New York City in which music and visual art were tightly connected. Both the raw and rebellious attitude of punk and the atonal, violent guitar music with abstract lyrics of no-wave inspired artists like Robert Longo, Richard Prince, Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon to play in bands, while performances by these 'art-rock' bands were held in exhibition spaces and so-called 'art lofts'. Kim Gordon not only played in bands but also worked off and on for New York art galleries, as well as on her own curatorial projects, while also regularly contributing essays on art and music to magazines such as Artforum. The natural crossover between art and experimental music, as was apparent in those days, laid the foundations for the multidisciplinary activities of Sonic Youth. Since then, the band has been true to their attitude to amalgamate punk's rebellious posture with experimental music and conceptual art in their comprehensive output. Up until today this productivity - of which many in collaboration with other artists - remains unrivalled in its complexity by any other band or artists' collective. This section of the exhibition connects works by artists who were active in the late 1970s and early 1980s downtown New York art scene, and relevant to the early history of Sonic Youth, with works by subsequent generations of New York based artists whose work and/or collaborations with Sonic Youth fuelled the band's activities at later stages in their career. This section of the exhibition furthermore comprises works by young noise artists, selected by Thurston Moore. Artists in this section include: Dan Graham; Richard Prince; John Miller; Christian Marclay; Tony Oursler; Richard Kern; Patti Smith; Jutta Koether; Rita Ackermann; John Olsen; Dennis Tyfus; and others.

SATELLITE 2 Already in the early days of their existence, Sonic Youth would rent a van to hit the road and play gigs outside of New York City. The band was given such opportunity because a new generation of kids living in suburbia became aware of the latest music scene from New York City. The band's on the road experiences led among others to the writing and publishing of journals by the individual band members, and later to filmed material by Lee Ranaldo. The 'on the road' feel has been apparent in the band's output ever since they first hit the road together, both in their music and visual art projects. This section of the exhibition encompasses works dealing with suburbia, (teenage) wanderlust, and the vast landscapes of the Great West, while protagonists as diverse as beatniks, hitchhiking youngsters and cowboys impart these stories. This section of the exhibition is partly dedicated to a selection of lyrics, musical scores, diaries and writings by musicians. Furthermore, a vast selection of underground poetry, broadsheets and fanzines by artists from Thurston Moore's collection, and selected by him, is shown in this section as well. Artists in this section include: Jack Kerouac; William S. Burroughs; Allen Ginsberg; D.A. Levy; Vito Acconci; Robert Smithson; Thurston Moore; Lee Ranaldo; Tom Verlaine; Richard Hell; Mark Gonzales; John Cage; Steve Reich; Glenn Branca, and others.

SATELLITE 3 Kim Gordon was born in New York State but grew up and studied art in LA. When she, in the late 1970s, undertook a journey by car from the West Coast to the East Coast, Mike Kelley - who she had met during a Dan Graham lecture at Cal Arts - accompanied her on this cross state drive that brought her to New York City. Gordon settled there to work as an artist, but instead found herself playing in several bands before she, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo formed Sonic Youth in 1981. In the early 1980s, Moore's curiosity for LA hardcore and Gordon's background in the West Coast art scene led them back to LA, where they befriended artists and musicians such as Raymond Pettibon and Mike Watt. Soon after, Sonic Youth played their first West Coast gigs. For these artists, as for later generations of West Coast artists, late 1960s society - when the Hippie culture came up against the harsh and brutal reality of the culture of evil, which ended the Summer of Love in bloodshed with the Manson ordered murders - is an important point of departure for their artistic production. This section of the exhibition includes works that contrast Californian culture, like Hollywood's superficial glamour world, with violent radical subjects like the Manson Family, and subcultures such as the skate culture and the West Coast hardcore scene of the early 1980s. Among the protagonists of these works are icons as diverse as Charles Manson, Karen Carpenter and Joan Crawford. Artists in this section include: Mike Kelley; Mark Gonzales; Spike Jonze; Todd Haynes, Dave Markey; Raymond Pettibon; Cameron Jamie; and Kim Gordon, among others.

SATELLITE 4 While the band already played European gigs in their early days, the band's connections with artists worldwide have been apparent since they expanded the touring of lesser-visited locations on the globe from the late 1980s onwards - up until China, where they played for the first time in 2007. This section brings together works by artists that live and work outside of the US scene, such as Gerhard Richter; Tacita Dean; Yamataka Eye; Isa Genzken; Michael Morley; and others.

SATELITE 5 A choice of sound released by Sonic Youth and its members, as well as videos for these songs (whenever existing) and a selection of releases on the labels Smells Like Records (drummer Steve Shelley's label) and Ecstatic Peace! (guitarist/vocalist Thurston Moore's label) are made available for the visitor's selection and listening/viewing in a pavilion especially designed for this purpose by Dan Graham. In this pavilion, the visitor could also consult a selection of digitised audiocassettes, recorded by Graham during live performances of late 1970s and early 1980s punk bands.
A number of monitors with headphones and a DVD video library, situated in a comfortable lounge-setting, offer the visitor access to a collection of films and videos selected by Sonic Youth, among which all videos shown on monitors or as projections in the exhibition. A choice of books and magazines with contributions by or on Sonic Youth and the artists participating in the exhibition, as well as a selection of fiction writing influential for the band could also be consulted in this space.

SATELLITE 6 Film and live music are essential components of both Sonic Youth's inspiration and output. This section of the exhibition encompasses a series of film screenings and performances to take place in parallel with the exhibition and in spaces best equipped for this type of work. The selection of films and performers (musicians, artists...) is done by Sonic Youth. The film program includes a wide range of cinematographic works by American avant-garde filmmakers, visual artists and punk filmmakers, while performances among others feature collaborations of Sonic Youth members with other musicians and artists. Artists in the film program include: Stan Brakhage; Jonas Mekas; Jack Goldstein; Jim O'Rourke; Gus Van Sant; Dave Markey; Leah Singer, and others.

Congrats on a wonderful 2000th post Moshe! :D thankssss for all the updates!
p.s. this thing looks amazing..

Thanks nicfit. Some more info:

The exhibition SONIC YOUTH ETC. : SENSATIONAL FIX is initiated and curated by me in close collab w/ SY and organised by LIFE/MUSEION. It will be presented at LIFE, St. Nazaire, France (from 17 June to 7 September 2008), MUSEION, Bolzano, Italy (from 10 October 2008 – 4 January 2009), and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany (31 January – 26 April 2009). Currently, further venues in Europe, the US and Asia are under discussion. The band as well as its members separately will play gigs
- by Roland Groenenboom

sweet.

Kick and ass.

SHELFLIFE#12A: ALWAYS SEEMS TO MOVE SO SLOW

[BUILT] 05.16.2008 by visitordesign
I’ve mentioned before that I was asked to create and gather work from material in my archive for the upcoming Sensational Fix touring Sonic Youth exhibition. Something I’d been meaning to make for a long time, but never got around to–until last week–was an impressionistic audio/video collage about the making of Harmony Korine’s Sunday.
I shot 3 hours of material the day Harmony made the video. That was over 11 years ago, and re-visiting such old footage is difficult. Different equipment, shooting styles, subject-focus… I get this one thing I want to make–it’s done in my head–been done for years–ready to encode, burn and rip–but I jog thru the footage and the fragments I’ve edited in my memory don’t exist on the tapes. I experienced them, but never recorded them. Maybe I misremembered them over time.
So, a simple 8-minute edit becomes this painful exercise in compromising memory while trying to convey some sense of the experience to a viewer. All the while, I don’t really want to convey the experience–at all. I never really do. I just want to frustrate people, so I’m not so isolated in my perplexed recollection. This is why I’ll never be a real filmmaker. I’ve got no stories to tell. I’ve just got this compulsion to document things and these thoughts I reflect on while I re-examine footage. I lack a fundamental interest in structure and basically want a viewer to vicariously experience my high blood pressure, confusion and angina more than anything else. Always Seems So Slow is pretty representative of that process–but somehow, the jarring sound edit, lack of anchors and surreal, sensual and sensational subject matter make angina slightly endearing.
Maybe I’ll stream it after the opening on June 17th. For now, I leave you with stills.

Italian for "Goo"

Reopening next week: Museion, an Italian museum of modern and contemporary art whose inaugural exhibit, Peripheral Vision and Collective Body, is a massive group show that includes works by Vito Acconci, Hans Haacke and Jean-Luc Godard, among others. Berlin architects KSV Krüger Schuberth Vandreike designed the new building as a five-story glass and steel cube that comes with the requisites: exhibition areas, events space, and a library. Added bonus? The museum's facades double as screens; curators will be able to project specially commissioned artworks onto them at night. That'll be handy come fall when Sonic Youth etc.: Sensational Fix, a retrospective of the alternative band's multimedia career, goes on display. This is going to be the year punk broke in Italy, apparently.

http://men.style.com/news/blog/2008/...n-for-goo.html

ROBERTO OPALIO & MY CAT IS AN ALIEN will participate to the forthcoming SONIC YOUTH etc.: SENSATIONAL FIX museum exhibition, that focuses on the multidisciplinary activities of the groundbreaking experimental guitar band Sonic Youth since its formation in 1981. It features the band's collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers, designers and musicians, as well as a choice of other works selected by the band. Through the multidisciplinary output of Sonic Youth and related works by other artists in the exhibition, an alternative history of contemporary culture is being uncovered in which the division between 'high art' and 'low art' is being called into question, while issues are explored such as teenage rebellion, adolescent wanderlust, gender, fame, fashion, sexuality, and religion.
ROBERTO OPALIO will present an exclusive installation entitled 'Alien Guitar Case #6', and his film 'Alien Blood'with soundtrack appositely created by MY CAT IS AN ALIEN.
The exhibition is initiated and curated by freelance curator Roland Groenenboom in collaboration with the band and will be presented at LiFE, St. Nazaire, France (from 17 June to 7 September 2008), MUSEION, Bolzano, Italy (from 10 October 2008 to 4 January 2009), and Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Germany (31 January to 26 April 2009). Further venues are currently in discussion, in Europe, the US and Asia. A complete description of the show can be found at www.sonicyouth.com

SONIC YOUTH etc.: SENSATIONAL FIX - Exhibition plans to screen John Cage's Water Walk (recording from 'I've Got a Secret')

I'm drooling.

wow! SONIC FUCKING LIFE!

Jun 17 - St. Nazaire, France - Sonic Youth: Sensational Fix - Exhibition opening - Sunburned w/ very special guests

and they do.

http://www.annaschwartzgallery.com/w...tem&serial=140

Kathy Temin: Sonic Youth etc.: Sensational Fix
17 Jun 2008
A touring exhibition that focuses on Sonic Youth's multidisciplinary activities since 1981, and features collaborations with Visual Artists.

Exhibition Dates:

Life, St. Nazaire, France
17 June - 7 September 2008

MUSEION, Bolzano, Italy
10 October 2008 - 4 January 2009

Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Germany
31 January - 26 April 2009

so anyone going to the opening today?

I've heard that SY are playing tonight and Lee tomorrow at St Nazaire, anyone can confirm???

SY tonight - I've heard that too, with Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Some guy posted a link to something on another thread that mentioned it (http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/sho...904#post599904).
Lee tomorrow - I hadn't heard that one.

According to the SY myspace mirror/dash and Sunburned are playing tonite at St-Nazaire expo opening. Guess they wan't to keep that info low key :)

http://www.estuaire.org/article.php3?id_article=3842

http://www.saint-nazaire.maville.com...----_actu.html

http://www.saint-nazaire.maville.com...----_actu.html

look at that wall!

I want ALL of those. Thanks.
butttt... merchandise for sale at the exhibition???

^
I hope so!

there's the poster from Prague '92 I sent here and it was hi res pic and now is't there. lovely!

An interview was posted today on this Saint Nazaire website:
http://www.saint-nazaire.maville.com...----_actu.html

There was also this morning an article in nationnal free newspaper 20 minutes:

It's funny that the main picture in that article is a Christian Marclay piece, but he gets no mention in the list of artists invloved in the written part.

I'm getting very very excited about going to this.




Alphi - Are you involved with the exhibition in some way? Don't be shy, you can tell us.

Here is another press article:
http://www.presseocean.fr/Sonic-Yout...----_actu.html

And I've also found how it was possible to go to the concert this week:
http://www.ouest-france.fr/2008/06/1...-53891658.html

> Alphi - Are you involved with the exhibition in some way? Don't be shy, you can tell us.
Not at all ! lol
Actually, I was born in Saint Nazaire, and so I'm very exited that there is a Sonic Youth exhibition next to my former home! Sadly (well, not really) I'm now living in Paris, so I'm not going to the exhibition until August and I'll go to the concert of course (which is 4 days before my birthday, really crazy!).
I'm looking for all the press coverage about the events and I'll continue to post links here if I found anything.

why don't they ever do these types of things iin the US, besides new york and la?

Another interview:
http://www.ouest-france.fr/2008/06/1...-53909224.html

And a review of the exhibition:
http://www.liberation.fr/culture/333771.FR.php

wow
i sorted myself out
and will go to SY show on the 9th in St Nazaire, will spend the night nearby and see the exhibition on the Sunday!
so cool

Another article with a photo:
http://www.saint-nazaire.maville.com...----_actu.html

And in this article http://www.saint-nazaire.maville.com...----_actu.html someone talk about the possibility of the show in August to be filmed.

I went to the expo last week. I'm not a SY fan and I don't think I've listened to a lot of their stuff (if any at all) but I live in St Nazaire and nothing (I mean it) usually happens in this city so I told myself 'why not ?'. After I saw the list of participants I definitely had to check out this thing, plus I kind of like the LiFE, as a structure, I mean come on it's a fu**** submarine base ! Alvéole 14 ! Haha...
And it was pretty good, there's a lot of stuff, from an amateur's pov Sonic Youth looks like a 'cool band', a little too rockish for me (no disrespect), but as a 'experimental-stuff-aficionado' I really enjoyed it.
Anyway it is THE place, this expo, to go as a fan, in my humble opinion.
And I don't want to give any credits to St Naze, I hate this city, but I think it's the best place they could have chosen, really, it gives the whole thing a very... well experimental atmosphere, with all the tv screens and the music playing at the same time, you know the resonance and s***.
I will probably go to the show in august, I hope they'll be a lot of 'strangers', for once it could be nice to live here, who knows...

i was waiting for some update. cheers for info! interesting non sonic youth fan wrote about it on sonic youth fan forum. nice.

by the way (if you happen browse through this thread again). is there any merchandising?

How are the 'negotiations' for other European venues going?

Lee's hair is well long in those photos!

None that I know of. It's not the typical exposition with the 'boutique' side, it's more the 'see and learn' type, you know.

thanks for the infos mXe!

looks like I'll need to figure out a way to snatch a couple posters out of the museion unnoticed...

Thank you !

Is the whole exhibition in the alvéole 14 ? I read that the LIFE was at the alvéole 14 but that the Grand Café hosted the exhibition. So, is there finally anything at the Grand Café ?

I've found a video on french Tv France 3's website:
http://videos-culture.france3.fr
Type 'Sonic youth' in the box and click OK.
You can download it with firebug.

some friends visiting me this week-end brought me a 8-10 pages thingie about the exhibition that was apparently given away with a french magazine, and it looks definitely interesting... I might actually try to go there when I'll be in France this summer... if only for the pleasure of visiting "Saint-Naze", as mXe put it, again...