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"Using a wide range of tools and techniques, Ewa and Jacek Doroszenko focus on the role of the sense of hearing in the process of experiencing space. They pay special attention to the soundscape - a layer of reality that surrounds us, which is usually treated as a background or complement to the visual sphere. The Doroszenkos try to reverse this perspective and treat sound, not image, as the main carrier of meanings and context" - Piotr Lisowski, curator of Partytura nowych gestów (Metascore of new gestures) for the Wrocław Contemporary Museum

it seems like no two viewings of the Doroszenkos' works can be the same. due to sound and space playing crucial roles in their art, the interior of the museum, the space itself, becomes an honorary exhibit. the roles are indeed reversed; what you see only enhances what you hear. The Wrocław Contemporary Museum is a peculiar space, "austere, openwork and claustrophobic", as the pamphlet for the exhibition proudly states. between its bare concrete walls and curving, labirynthine corridors, it makes for a perfect container for the skeletal constructions of Jacek Doroszenko's auditory explorations and Ewa Doroszenko's captivating depictions of sound in black-and-white compositions of shapes, forms and textures.

favourites (in no particular order):

SILENT SOUVENIRS (2016)
this art piece consists of four speakers on metal racks softly emitting a four-channel composition made of edited recordings of the soundscape in Barcelona. it's a collage of familiar and unfamiliar sounds creating a slightly eerie, distorted depiction, like a memory, of a foreign place. the recording was very silent, you could barely hear it unless you put your ear right next to it (it was thrilling to get so close to an object in a museum; i even forgot myself and put my hands around the rickety metal stands of the speakers). this seemed to have been a technical issue, or something to do with the acoustics of the place(?), although it wouldn't surprise me if it was indeed the intended presentation. standing in the middle of the installation, in the brief moments when the other exhibits went silent as well, if you strained your ears a bit, only a very faint buzz would reach you - a silent souvenir.

NATURAL POTENTIAL (2017)
the audiovisual experience attempts to address "the relationship between natural sounds and man-made sounds that interfere with the natural sound environment" by introducing synthetic recreations of naturally occuring sounds (weather phenomena, flowing water, insects) into the soundscape. the companion video consists of computer-generated environments as well as real ones. both sound and image play at reality, sometimes departing from strict imitation. this piece had its audio playing through a set of large, noise-cancelling headphones and the visuals were projected onto the floor. one engaged with this piece by kneeling down beside it to let oneself be transported into its world.

ASMR MACHINE/HOW TO TRAVEL (2019)
my interest in this piece is mostly due to its technical nature. it's a small scaffolding of speakers through which the recipient can walk and immerse themselves in the emitted noise. it invites into a kind of sensory meditation through observing the working of the instrument as one listens to it. standing in the middle of the installation, the speakers, each differently elevated, give the distant impression of standing in a field of tall grass, listening to the chirping of cicadas, bird calls and distant highways; in the world of the art piece, all is artificial and machine-like, but feels no more out of place than familiar everyday noise. it's a travel into another dimension, where you can find comfort by identifying analogous experiences to that of your own.

after i left the exhibition i felt much more aware and appreciative of the sounds around me. the wind, the buzz of traffic, the clatter of an old streetcar- a city soundscape. i often choose to escape uncontrolled noise; i spend most of my life in headphones. perhaps i felt so drawn to these art pieces (especially Silent Souvenirs and Natural Potential) because they were something of a controlled recreation of everyday auditory chaos, easier to parse than the daily experience; the artists guiding the recipient through the superficially common.

it made me think of a brief period some three to four years ago when i would sometimes use my phone's recorder feature to capture the soundscape of auditorily interesting places i would find myself in (from what i remember, a hospital waiting room and the backstage in a music club were some examples). these are all lost now, i think. they were primitive little soundbites unable to really capture the rich complexity of space and sound (inextricable things, it only now struck me), but they represented the urge to remember life with more than just one primary sense and somehow organise the world rife with sensory experiences.

this artistic encounter reminded me of my other forays into experimental/ambient music through the works of the Caretaker and William Basinski, as well as the (absolutely masterful and frankly criminally underrated, given the niche nature of its source) soundtrack to the video game OFF by Alias Condrad Coldwood.