| Lundahl & Seitl | | | | areas of architecture, fashion, cognitive neurology and |
| Symphony of a Missing Room | | | | classical music. Their work has been widely shown, |
| National Museum, Stockholm | | | | including presentations at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, |
| 3 - 15 November 2009 | | | | Steinway and Sons Piano Workshop, Cell Project |
| Sweden’s National Museum is the location of a | | | | Space, The A Foundation, The Whitechapel Gallery |
| new immersive and participatory project by | | | | and Battersea Arts Centre in London, and Weld, |
| contemporary artist duo Lundahl&Seitl, the third | | | | Stockholm. |
| and the most ambitious project in a series of solo | | | | Fashion Designer Jula Reindell has worked on design |
| commissions by Weld, Stockholm. | | | | and costumes for the project. She has previously |
| A choreographed performance of sound, narrative | | | | worked with Hussein Chalayan and is a holder of the |
| and movement, Symphony of a Missing Room | | | | 2009 Bavarian State Prize. |
| simulates a virtual space whilst also directing its visitors | | | | Collaborators of the project: |
| towards scrutiny of the museological objects within it. | | | | Rachel Alexander, Lisette Drangert, Schalom Haddad, |
| Viewers experience the solid reality of the museum | | | | Moa Hanssen, Genevieve Maxwell, |
| simultaneous to the narrative and cognitive diversions | | | | Colin McLean and Cassie Yukawa. |
| of the work itself. Manipulating the visitor’s | | | | Co-Produced by Weld and National Museum |
| experience of time, space and reality, the work | | | | Symphony of a Missing Room are being supported |
| becomes a collective yet highly personal journey | | | | generously by: |
| through the museum. | | | | Konstnarsnamnden, Weld, National Museum and |
| Taking the form of a guided tour, Symphony of a | | | | Sennheiser |
| Missing Room manipulates the visitors perceptions of | | | | Selected press about the work by Lundahl & seitl: |
| space and duration through multi-sensory | | | | ‘You stand in total darkness, guided by whispered |
| choreography, movement and touch, all synchronized | | | | instructions and the hands which lead yousuddenly into |
| by a binaural audio recording carried through | | | | bright diorama reminiscent of a Vermeer group portrait |
| individually-worn headsets. As the work unfolds there | | | | ‘ TIMEOUT, London |
| is a replication of the familiar activity of viewing objects | | | | ‘Lundahl and seitl’s” Rotating In A Room of |
| in a museum, but also a diversion of the visitor’s | | | | Images, a 15-minute piece for an audience of one using |
| attention towards uncanny choreographic occurrences | | | | audioinstructions, is like being haunted’ Lyn Gardner, |
| and concurrences, or towards virtual rooms and | | | | The Guardian |
| darkened or obscured spaces. After experiencing | | | | ‘A very clear evidence that the arts continue to |
| various degrees of blindness and being granted a new | | | | evolve into new realms of emotion and intellect’ |
| sensitivity to space, visitors may experience a new | | | | ”Pia Huss, DN from an article about Work |
| sense of their immediate reality within the museum. | | | | Workshop 2008 |
| Whilst examining the space of the museum and the | | | | ‘This is another type of presence, not the one |
| objects it holds by so dramatically altering the physical | | | | when your feet feels itchy in your shoes, but one |
| and mental path of the visitor within its rooms, | | | | where you feel a large space behind the your skull, |
| Symphony of a Missing Room simultaneously steers | | | | where consciousness opened up a window and |
| our attention away from the visible world, such that the | | | | drifted into the dark air’ |
| gaze becomes meditative and is turned back towards | | | | Malin Zimm, Chief editor of the architecture magazine |
| consciousness itself. | | | | RUM |
| On the 15 November, to mark the close of this run, the | | | | ‘With Work / Workshop the duo transformed |
| critically acclaimed concert pianist Cassie Yukawa will | | | | Weld into a dark room, a universe of possibilities, of |
| give a special performance in conjunction with the | | | | fear,desire and exploration, a redeeming work which |
| installation at the National Museum. | | | | still is moving somewhere in the bodily memory’ |
| LUNDAHL&SEITL have been working together | | | | Ulrika Stahre, Aftonbladet Kultur, about: what we |
| since 2003. With a strong foundation in research, the | | | | remember from 2008 ” |
| artists’ stage increasingly large-scale performance | | | | ‘But these people are without identity, and they |
| works that require the viewer’s full immersion, | | | | have at once multiple possible identities. Thus, perhaps |
| Lundahl&Seitl investigate space, time and | | | | do I. |
| perception, and have collaborated variously within the | | | | |