sungazing athens by LABOUR | 2024
EMST National Contemporary Art Museum Athens

sungazing is the spatio-sonic ritual by Berlin-based sonic duo LABOUR (Colin Hacklander & Farahnaz Hatam) that takes the obscure eponymous practice of sungazing as a conceptual center for the creation of a large-scale work combining computer music, acoustic instruments, visual elements and performance through stochastic processes superimposed upon one another to create environments that alternate between collective and individual addressal.

Within various environments of flux, stasis, immersion and its opposite, groups of performers move through vast physical spaces approaching, intersecting and withdrawing from the audience who are invited to freely explore the space and discover sound through new listening positions where simultaneously occurring elements throughout the building create unique listening experiences depending on one’s position. Visual and performative elements support the spatial listening environment and help guide the sonic parcour throughout the entire museum.

LABOUR’s understanding of sungazing contains elements of warning, of seduction, of danger on the one hand, and of potential discovery, attainment of knowledge and wisdom on the other hand, highlighting this tension within intense processes of self and collective realization and evoking a range of ritualized actions from the spiritual to that of civil disobedience.

This work occured throughout the finissage of the exhibition Iannis Xenakis: Sonic Odysseys at the National Contemporary Art Museum, Athens in a cyclical format that reapated at one hour intervals throughout the day.