Unfolding Silence, a new sound installation by Hans Rosenström, is showcased as part of the Frieze Sculpture 2023 exhibition in Regent’s Park, London, from September 20 to October 29. Directed for the first time by independent curator and writer Fatoş Üstek, this year’s event features 22 leading international artists.
Rosenström's work focuses on creating installations that are thoughtfully designed to complement their specific locations. He uses diverse mediums such as sound, language, architecture, and light to construct immersive environments that facilitate meaningful encounters. By blending the fictive with the real, he wishes to acknowledge that we share our lives with a multitude of other sensuous beings, human and other, therefore he also often invites the viewers to become part of the work, to feel their presence, to pay attention and reflect upon their interconnectedness with the world around them.
Unfolding Silence is is specially commissioned for Frieze Sculpture, responding to the context and specificity of the Regent's Park and English Gardens in particular.
”We are constantly shaping and being shaped by our surroundings. ’Unfolding Silence’ sees sculpture as an event where the focus shifts from the physical form to our temporal and entangled relationships.
Nestled within a small grove in the English Gardens the artwork offers an intimate space for listening, a space that invites us to ground ourselves in our bodies yet remain receptive and perceptive to the world around us. In here, the disembodied voices of the Echo Vocal Ensemble subtly emerge, initially blending in with the surrounding soundscape, then adding an additional layer to the environment and resonating with our presence within it.
With our voices, we possess the ability to bridge gaps between bodies, to communicate, stimulate and affect. As our voices permeate the air, they also have the power to invade the interiors of other beings, transcending physical boundaries. Just as voices can connect, they can also silence.
Listening is an act of attention and giving attention is essential to our undulating coexistence.”
Hans Rosenström (1978, Lohja, Finland) studied in both the Malmö Art Academy (Sweden) and the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, from where he received his MFA in 2007. Currently he lives and
works in Stockholm. Rosenström has participated in multiple group exhibitions including: North Atlantic Triennial: Down North, Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden (2023),
Landscapes of Belonging, Kindl Contemporary Art Center, Berlin, Germany (2022), North Atlantic Triennial: Down North, PMA Portland Museum of Art, USA (2022), Subterranean, Amos Rex, Helsinki, Finland (2022).
His solo exhibitions include Evanesce, Kohta, Helsinki, Finland (2022), Shadows on the Water, light and sound installation, Espoonlahti, Finland (2022), Weaving, yearning, public sound installation,
Kings Cross, London, UK (2021). In 2016, Rosenström was awarded the William Thuring Prize, and he was a nominee for the Ars Fennica Prize in 2015. His works are included in the collections of institutions
such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, and EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art.
Frieze Sculpture, Regent’s Park, London, UK
20 September – 29 October 2023.
Photo credit:
Hans Rosenström, ’Unfolding Silence’, 2023, sound installation, motion detector, stone, bronze
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