To hear on Sunday
23 and 30 October 2011, 2pm - 9pm
In Place: Piazza Cella, Zürich
(2011, Premiere)
by Jason Kahn
Jason Kahn on 'In Place: Piazza Cella, Zürich' [29:45]:
"In Place" is a series of works which deal with the notion of "the field recording" in current practice.
I think a lot of the work around field recording has involved the notion of using devices to
record sound in the field, whereas for me I often feel that the process of recording, of being in a certain place, spending time there, absorbing that place, as it were, is really what I take away with me when I go somewhere to record. The recordings are really just a kind of documentation of the experience of being in a certain place.
My idea is to spend a day in a place and then, instead of recording this, writing a text about the experience of being in this place. So, in a sense the text would be the field recording. The recording of my voice reading this text would then be the final material for an installation.
What you have, then, is a recording (audio) of a recording (text) of a place. I literally “read” a place.
In this case, I spent twelve hours – from noon to midnight – on August 6, 2011 at the Piazza Cella in Zürich's Kreis 5, a neighborhood primarily known for drugs, violence, bars, prostitution and, more recently, many galleries. Until 2009, the Piazza Cella used to be a taxi stand. In an attempt to rehabilitate this neighborhood the City of Zürich decided to make the Piazza Cella into a place for people to sit and linger—a bold concept for an area where lingering practically equates with some transgression against the legal code.
There is a small sign on the Piazza Cella which offers some historical context:
Piazza Cella
«Erminia Cella (1888–1959)
Wirtin im Restaurant «Cooperativo» (1935–1952),
damals Treffpunkt der antifaschistischen
italienischen Emigration und Mutter von
Ettore Cella (1913–2004),
Schauspieler und Regisseur.»
The place was named after Erminia Cella, who operated for many years the restaurant
Cooperativo, which was originally located not far from the Piazza Cella. Cooperativo was the epicenter for Zürich's Italian immigrants, many of whom lived and worked in Kreis 5.
Jason Kahn
Born 1960, New York, USA.
Composition, installations, percussion, electronics.
Based in Zürich, Switzerland.
Exhibitions and concerts in museums, galleries, art spaces, festivals and clubs throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Turkey and South Africa.
Sound pieces for film, dance and radio.
From 1997–2009 ran the CD label Cut.