Diaphonics

About

Centrala presents 'Diaphonics' the first solo exhibition of Andrius Arutiunian in the UK. Borrowing its title from a musical term, the exhibition presents an interplay of three sound and video works. ‘In Diaphonics' the artist explores the notion of diaphony (both in musical and political frames) through various spells, sonic objects and resonances. 

For 'You Do Not Remember Yourself’ (co-commissioned by Centrala, CTM Festival Berlin and Armenia Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, 2022) Arutiunian manufactured a new musical instrument. Made entirely out of brass, the instrument emits sounds and amplifies or distorts them through its elongated body. The work departs from an expanded reading of resonance - what remains when matter enters into a different state? The instrument is accompanied by a sound installation called 'Do Not Fear, Then!’. Four voices incant an improvised score containing Armenian spells and apotropaic magic from the city of Moks. These spells survived through a secret language of Ruštuni and were used by the felt-beating artisans of the city of Moks to alter the states of reality and bend already-existing worlds. Working together with four singers, Arutiunian recorded the verses in multiple intonations and transfigurations, compiling a speculative sonic lexicon of apotropaic magic. The voices incantate a series of spells and respond in parallel to the hypnotic soundscape of the brass instrument. As the third part of ‘Diaphonics’, the artist presents a new video work based on the ambiguous interplay of rhythm, dancing, and spontaneity. 

‘Diaphonics’ departs from Arutiunian’s research into gharīb - a cryptogenic word connected to vernacular knowledge, sonic dissent and political peripheries. Arutiunian reads gharīb as a dissonance to the prevailing understandings of time, rhythm, and attunement within the Western imaginaries. Taken as an investigation into the imperialist histories of what we hear as being "in tune”, the series of works study the notions of dissonance, tuning, esoterics and dissent.

The project is supported using public funding by Arts Council England and by funding by the Lithuanian Culture Institute.