Agenda

Exhibition The Anarchy of Silence   John Cage and Experimental Art

Shattered artistic conventions

Starting on Friday, 3 September at 20:00, SCHUNCK* will open the exhibition The Anarchy of Silence -  John Cage and Experimental Art featuring the American composer, poet, graphic artist and essayist John Cage (1912–1992). A retrospective of his work, philosophy and influence.

If this word, music, is sacred and reserved for eighteenth- and nineteenth century instruments, we can substitute a more meaningful term: organization of sound.       ----- John Cage, Future of Music: Credo, (1940).

John Cage defined a radical practice of “experimental” musical composition that not only altered the course of modern music and dance but generated a new horizon of conceptual possibilities for artistic practice in the late 20th century and beyond. Through a focused, prodigious, and ever-exploratory output, over a career spanning more than half a century, Cage’s challenges to the discipline of music affected other disciplines as well. Successive generations of creators have seized upon aspects of Cage’s project selectively, according to their artistic needs and the needs of the particular moment. This has created the sense of not just one oeuvre to contemplate, and not a single “John Cage,” but many “Cages,” and an array of exceptional artistic interlocutors. This exhibition takes a systematic and chronological view of Cage’s project in order to make it read with the consistency and coherence Cage himself forged, which is only now entering contemporary consciousness. Just as systematically, but speculatively as well, the exhibition presents some of the landmark works that appeared in Cage’s midst, which affected or were affected by his implacable quest for change.  

The exhibition follows Cage’s career in chronological order from 1930 until the late 1980s, and comprises over two hundred works, including original scores, paintings, sound pieces, films and multimedia installations. To explore Cage's influence from the point of view of a museum for contemporary art, Cage's associations with artists of his time are examined. Therefore not only is John Cage’s own work featured, but also that of artists like Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, La Monte Young, Nam June Paik, Fluxus, and other artists.

Cage shattered the the artistic conventions of his time, and his influence is still felt today. Curated by Julia Robinson and co-produced with Henie Onstad Art Centre in Norway and MACBA Barcelona, the retrospective portrays John Cage as an all-round innovator.

Opening: Friday 3 September 2010, 20:00, free admission
Open from Tues. to Fri. from 11:00 to 17:00 (Thurs.: until 20:00), and Sat. and Sun. from 13:00 to 17:00
Admission: € 7.00 (no admission charged after first visit)

Exhibition organised by Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) in cooperation with SCHUNCK* and the Henie Onstad Art Centre, Høvikodden

This exhibition has been made possible through an indemnity grant provided by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Dutch Ministry of Finance.