HANGING

Hanging is a search for relationships between object, sound, light, movement and ritual within a theatrical environment. Each aspect leads the audience on a path, beginning with a casual situation over a series of metamorphoses into a momentary loss of orientation in space and time. The piece is a recollection of memories of the original purpose of ceremonies which initially took place in nature, and how these could be addressed in the contemporary age of post-industrial technology.

Martin Janíček (* 1961, Praha, Československo) is a sound artist, sculptor and musician. He explores acoustic qualities of various materials and he develops custom musical instruments, interactive sonic objects and installations. His practice is often site-specific, since 2000 he has been a member of the mamapapa collective (focused on site-specific projects, sound- and light design education, theatre and social activity). As a member of the collective, he has produced a number of important projects both on the local and international level: Srdce PQ 2003, Industriální Safari, Kladno 2005, Proroci písma 2006-2009, Construcktion-Connextion 2007, Phonart Lost Languages 2010 - 2011.

Ladislav Železný (born in 1979 in Jindřichův Hradec) is a performer, a multimedia artist and an author of sound installations, who lives and works in Prague. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Brno University of Technology where he studied with PaedDr. Jan Svoboda at the Studio of Intermedia at the Studio of Video and Multimedia with Keiko Sei, Peter Rónaie and Richard Fajnora. In the latter he was later appointed as a technical assistant for sound applications and as external lecturer. Nowadays, he works as a sound designer for verbal production in the Czech Radio and as a music director and editor of the Radiocustica program.

“As Martin Janíček unravels the topic of synaesthesia in regards to artistic and musical activity, he may tie these topics back to artistic phenomena such as color music, Gesamtkunstwerk and multimedia. However, this is not the exalted multimedia show of the 1960s – it is rather a paradoxical retreat from this area of performativity. In order to perform, one must embrace his activity, gestures, body language. A performance (or a performative as coined by J. L. Austin) causes the quality and state of the reality to transform. This is often a result of Janíček's interventions, such as the diamond cut carried out during the event Přetížení), yet in most cases it leads to a confirmation of status quo, an exploration and recognition of given sensual and physical aspects of items and space. Consequently, these aspects are amplified, extruded and presented (Reflection 808, a composition  based on sounds of a given piece of architecture). Sound and image is often to be found as a specific quality of a certain spot (Janíček is a member of the collective mamapapa which deals with interactive, site-specific projects). Elaborate constructions sometimes arise in order to provide space for various materials to express their specific qualities (in terms of sound, image, scent, tactility etc). The theme of these projects is often based on archetypes such as the landscape, embodied in a symbol or a structure while in both cases it retains a temporal quality. This temporality is connected with the effort to expand the sensitivity and scope of the senses. Some of Janíček's apparatuses resemble baroque experiments as seen in the research of Athanasius Kircher. These experiments could be seen as an aspect of the magic of those days, and consequently as a way to understand Janíček's oeuvre. It's the magic of many elements and mixture of the unforeseen, the experienced and the felt."
Václav Hájek, Artlist