CROSSBAND; Solo Exhibition at PSM, Berlin
UJINO MUNETERU
CROSSBAND
September 3, 2008 — October 4, 2008
PSM
Strassburger Strasse 6-8, 10405 Berlin, Germany
phone: +49 30 75 52 46 26
Opening reception + performance: Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 9 pm to open end
Afterparty with DJ Reznik and spAcelex
Performance reenactment: Saturday, September 6, 2008, 8 – 9 pm
'A crossband repeater allows two radio stations to communicate that ordinarily would not be able to do so because of the distance or terrain between them.’
Ujino Muneteru transforms mechanical sounds into complex rhythms. Bored by the technical limits of his instruments, the guitarist and bassist experiments with new sounds. Different sounding bodies widen the spectrum of resonance; simple mechanical motors produce new tones. In particular domestic appliances, tools, and large machinery from the fifties to the seventies play a significant role here because of their mechanical simplicity and haptic palpability. Points of reference to the Japanese “Noise Music”, a type of sound movement from the eighties rooted in John Cage and the Fluxus, can also be seen.
In his first solo presentation in Europe Ujino Muneteru deals with the cultural and historic integration of the East and West using sounds. Muneteru, growing up in the consumer society of Tokyo, sees himself confronted with the historic industrial space of the GDR at PSM. PSM is located in a freight garage of the former transport establishment of the Central Committee of the SED. In Crossband Muneteru does not wish to teach, he wishes to investigate and record a playful catenation between history and the future of spaces.
Crossband speaks about the concurrence, the intersection of sound waves, of information from language or sounds. Two installations are in the forefront of this communication cross-link - Pickle-Up and Plywood City.
Pickle-Up consists of two old GDR motor cars, which have lost color and shape since the collapse of the GDR and have succumbed to the elements, like a pickle in its brine.
Plywood City refers to a part of Tokyo, in the vernacular, built from wood. Inspired by it, Muneteru constructs a model city, which is animated by kinetic objects and sound. The basis of the city is formed by art transport crates, whose misappropriation cites socialist flagstone buildings with irony.
Pickle-Up and Plywood City also function as interfaces between the past and future of the space of PSM - the former GDR freight garage and the future gallery.
Link: PSM