Exhibition

Petrichor

7 Sep 2019 – 21 Oct 2019

Regular hours

Saturday
10:00 – 18:00
Sunday
10:00 – 18:00
Tuesday
10:00 – 18:00
Wednesday
10:00 – 18:00
Thursday
10:00 – 18:00
Friday
10:00 – 18:00

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Antichambre

Bern
Bern, Switzerland

Event map

About

Sinae Yoo’s artistic practice explores the effects of alienation and servitude in the age of digitalized capitalism. The artist re-contextualizes digital media such as advertisements, video games, corporate aesthetics, and pop-culture references to reflect the subjugation of human life under the umbrella of consumer culture. By juxtaposing the spiritual anchoring of individual life and the competitiveness of consumerism, she creates a tangible environment to engage with this everyday duality.

In her project Petrichor, Yoo utilizes music to convey the intensity of competition in popular culture. Her interest stemmed from the observation that contemporary music is more “physical” than it was historically - in the sense today’s music is mastered with an emphasis toward compression and loudness as opposed to dynamics. As a consequence, the act of listening to music has shifted towards a multi-sensorial experience where these waves are not only heard as sounds but also felt physically as vibrations. With advancements in audio technology, consuming music has transformed into a haptic experience.

An extreme manifestation of this technological development can be found in the car bass-blasting phenomenon called “flexing”, which emphasizes the customization of disproportionately powerful sound systems with amplifiers and subwoofers that are able to bend the structure of the car itself and sometimes shatter the windshield with their intensity. In Petrichor, Yoo alludes to this subculture as an archetype of the hyper-masculine power demonstrations prompted by the competitive atmosphere of capitalist societies.

After two exhibitions in Rome (The Gallery Apart) and Prague (The Center for Contemporary Art FUTURA) earlier this year, Yoo completed the third iteration of Petrichor for Antichambre in Bern. The first two presentations were substantially focused on music composition and the creative potential of underground culture as an emancipatory force against mainstream competitiveness, whereas her third show is a testament to Yoo’s interest for mainstream music from the viewpoint of extreme human behavior inspired by the sound culture surrounding music, but not purely music itself. 

Exhibition text by Simon Würsten Marin

The exhibition supported by Kanton Bern, Kultur Stadt Bern, and the Swiss Art Council(Pro Helvetia).

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