SYNCH05: Recording_1989 by Marysia Lewandowska

As part of the SYNCH series, Polish-born, London based artist Marysia Lewandowska continues her interest in archives, museums and exhibitions investigating the mechanisms which contribute to creating discursive social structures of public exchange.

For the past two years her critical engagement with Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden focused on conversations regarding governance, public participation and collective authorship. These have now resulted in a new installation taking as its point of reference the history of the institution through the 1989 Donald Judd exhibition. 

Having encountered an audio tape with Judd’s interview recorded at the time, and which has recently been released into the public domain, Lewandowska has created, both materially and conceptually, a new context for the recording. By inquiring on questions regarding the construction of the artist’s voice, the political circumstances surrounding the recording itself, and the implications of voice and voicing for the future history of the institution, she turns the archival gesture into a contested terrain of authority. Suiting a recording studio pavilion reminiscent of Judd’s aluminum sculptures inside the Kunsthalle building, Lewandowska makes use of his construction methods, while summoning the structure to perform a dedicated role in the process of interview recordings. It is an invitation as well as invitational space.

Through a curated series of interviews, Lewandowska is committed to carefully staging the slowing down of accumulated knowledge pointing to exclusions, gaps and tension shifts between the right to speak and the ability to listen.

Curated by Misal Adnan Yildiz and Dominik Busch.