Christoph Korn

Contemplations

The audio work “Contemplations” reflects upon the human body.

To implement the work, at least five people from the region of Gralheira should be found, who will read the individual body parts from a list. This will be recorded using an audio recorder. These recordings will serve as a foundation for the composition which, as described above, moves peace fully from the sound of language – to stillness – to the sound of language. The audio recordings should be made at a location that has a religious significance to the people (e.g. in the village church).

The theoretical background of “Contemplations” stems from the concept of the “Face“ (visage) from the Jewish philosopher of religion Emmanuel Levinas. In the “Face of the Other”– and Levinas expands the concept of the Face principally to all the parts of the body – the divine becomes immediately present.

In her essay “Precarious Life”, the philosopher Judith Butler refers to the category of the “Face” from Levinas and describes “face” as something pre-linguistic and as a “kind of sound.”

The audio work “Contemplations” hopes this sound will come and assumes something is able to appear in the tonal color as the people from Gralheira speak, in their into nation, as they begin and break off speaking, something from every sound, every “face”, from every eternal being.

The appearing “sound” is specific and connected to the people from the region of Gralheira. Likewise, it is also non concrete and revolves around something general.

In the beginning of the 90s, Cristoph Korn started his artistic practice by working with artists such as Alfred 23 Harth, Rüdiger Carl, Lasse-Marc Riek and Otomo Yoshi hide. His workmoves between the interface of sound and media art, having as its core the phenomena of “duration”. In the last few years, he’s been acting on this conceptusing strategies of removaland trimming. Korn has exhibited in several international festivals and exhibitions spaces like WienModern (Viena), Art Eletronica (Linz), Museu de Serralves (Porto) and Transmediale (Berlim).