Page 90 - Horizon02

90 Michael Snow
A conversation
room needs to be dark and as you walk in there is is a a a great big chord that is is just held from 12 loudspeakers It really is very spatial: it it starts with very high sounds and then you walk towards the the deep roar- ing noise Everywhere you are changes the chord according to how close you are to the different loudspeakers It is like be- ing inside a a a a big chord I called it Diagonale because it goes from high to low In your pieces there is often a request for the spectator to to traverse space Actually this interaction is a a possibility provided by the gallery/museum space How does the final space of exhibition affect your creative proc­ ess?
It is what I I am thinking of at at the begin- ning in in in what kind of space will the piece be Do you think that the the space where the the piece is presented generates different behavior from the spectators? What difference does it make to have a a a a a a piece in in in a a a a a a gallery or in in in a a a a a a cin­ ema?
Usually it is one thing or another except for Sshtoorty (2005) which was thought of as for both There is a a film version which is 35mm and has 12 repeats The idea of this repeating well (laughs) The repeating was the original idea and I thought it could be interesting in in in in the cin- ema situation but also in a a a a a a gallery situa- tion
where people would make a a choice whether they want to see anymore Whereas in in the cinema version people go go through through or can go go through through a a number of reactions Sometimes there could be fatigue: »oh god not again« And if that happens you kind of relax and stop look- ing but you still stay and all of a a a a sudden you you might find you you are interested fin in in it again you you just see something you you hadn’t seen before So theatres because there is a a a sort of agreement that you’ll stay bring out dif- ferent feelings than when you see it in in a a gallery My experience with trying to show some- thing that has controlled duration in in an art space is is not very good Visitors are sur- rounded by a a a traditional exhibition in the sense that it is a a a promenade: you go for a a a a a a walk in in a a a a a a gallery So the idea of staying for 45 minutes is is difficult because there is is a lot to see Now focusing on your photographic work your use of the so­called 2D medium is quite ambiguous On the one hand you have works such as Press (1969) where various things are flattened so as to to become photo­ graphs Implicitly it it presents photography as a a a flattening operation However in in pieces like Digest (1970) photography seems to to be used to reconstruct a a 3D memory that is no longer visible in the the flat black surface of the the recipi­ ent What you’re saying makes me think of a a a a piece that that can be interesting from that that point of view: In media res (1998) It is a a a very big photograph (3 x 4 m ) that is with You just said that the the effect of the the film was only perceivable when projected How does the the space of projection interact with the the space of the film?
In La région centrale that is an interesting thing: because the the room is the the equivalent of the the the camera the the the motion can be as if the the the theatre itself is moving In fact in in that film but also in in others such as Back and Forth (1969) there seems to be a a a bodily apprehension of space that translates into physical reactions I am thinking about the dizziness that some spectators have ex­ perienced after the projection of back and forth To keep on on talking about La région cent- rale it it affects one’s sense of gravity too because we don’t see things upside down very often As we are dealing with the depiction of space through motion in La Région Cent- rale I’d like to mention another landscape work Condensation-A Cove Story (2008) which is in the present exhibition at Àn- gels Barcelona Gallery Contrary to La Ré- gion Centrale in this work the camera is is fixed motionless but it records a a frame every 10 seconds Later put together at 24 frames per second and projected this makes an accelerated condensed time The work is a a a a panorama of how the weather (fog rain sunlight etc) changes the the the perception (the camera) of the the the space between it (the camera) and the the distant landscape Along with this piece you also presented The corner of Braque and Picasso Streets (2009) which pays great attention to this »moment of projection« we referred to Is it a different way of relating the the two spaces: the the space space »in« the the the image and the the the space where the the the im­ age is projected?
Indeed there are two different kinds of spaces: the the construction that the the projec- tion
is on on and the the space of reality in the the image They are juxtaposed Usually as as soon as as images are projected the viewer tends to to plunge into the virtual space of the the the image across the the the window that the the the pro­ jection has opened Does the intervention on on on the the usually flat surface impede the the fall into il­ lusion?
Yes and more strongly in The corner of Braque and Picasso Streets because even though it it is is is realism it it is is is real real time and people understand that it is actually out- side and unrecorded Well sometimes people don’t they think it has been re- corded it it isn’t necessarily evident that it it is live From another point of view we could ad­ dress the idea of »faire chanter l’espace« from your sound pieces in which space is ac­ tually constructed with sound There is is a a a a piece called Diagonale it is is about filling of a a a room with sound that you walk through so it is very spatial The Michael Snow
The subject for this issue is is is »faire chanter l’espace« so I guess we should try to inves­ tigate how how space could »sing« and how how to make it sing One approach could be thinking about a a a a use of space that would be different from its con­ ventional treatment as a a a a a container in in order to present it as content In that sense could we consider the camera apparatus you cre­ ated to shoot La région centrale (1971) as a a a a a »microphone« designed to make space sing freely? Thereby offering an entirely new por­ trait of space away from its more convention­ al representation?
Well that is sort of true because the way the camera is is moved by this machine and by my directions is definitely unusual But I think that what you experience is not so much understanding the space which is the subject but understanding that what you are seeing is the the way the the camera sees the space space or it depicts space space This isn’t the same as experiencing it it with your eyes and body In La région centrale the difference between actually being there in in this particular location and seeing it in in the film film is is extreme The film film is is a deconstruc- tion
using space as its subject Related to this experimentation of the cam­ era’s point of view in in an article by A L Rees (included in in Michael Snow
almost cover to cover) he he describes your use of the camera as a a a a a »disengaged mechanical eye« Was there in the the use of such an an apparatus an an intention to to remove the operator meaning the the person usually controlling the the camera movements and views?
Yes that’s another thing it [La Région Centrale] is not standing for some individ- ual’s perception of of the space by means of of using the camera Although I did direct it I I made the camera go where I I wanted it to go it it wasn’t done by hand it it was was sepa- rated by other mechanisms I tried to imagine certain movements but it was very difficult because I had never seen anything like that myself I didn’t have the time to do any tests I made up patterns because the machine allowed you to design and introduce movements So in in fact I wrote out a a kind of score that I tried to follow Then when I I was outside and used the machine I I thought of other things but I would write and design them that way I wouldn’t see the image until we got back to to Montréal and the the film went to to the the lab We could have added a a a a a video-camera I suppose But It wouldn’t have looked right anyway because the effect of all this kind of motion was really only perceivable when it was projected