Morten Poulsen Resistance Loudness Echo

Resistance Loudness Echo

Filled with lived experience, sound can aim to protest and awake the listener to join in revolt. It is a physical force that unsettles established ideologies, when fat, flesh and bones collide with dominant structures. Amidst both agitational noise and systemic silence, listening helps us to practice our sensitivity and ability to respond. From this point, artist Morten Poulsen and friends presents works from 2024 featuring experimental punk music and sound installations.

At the opening on Friday October 4th, there will be a performance by UK/DK-based trumpet-player Ben Rodney. The music was created in collaboration with danish punk-band Utæt.

Throughout his practice and research, artist Morten Poulsen is interested in the ways in which we are embedded in socio-political structures. Fundamental to his work is the understanding of listening as a transformative activity that has a potential to (re)form the listener(s). Mortens artistic work has been exhibited widely at exhibition spaces such as Kunstbygningen i Vrå (Ung Dansk Samtidskunst), Kunsten Museum of Contemporary Art in Aalborg, Kunsthal Aarhus, Skjold Contemporary, SixtyEight Art Institute and c4 Projects. His research has been published by Seismograf (DK) and presented at PARSE Biennal for Artistic Research in Gothenburg (SE). He has a background as drummer and composer, and has toured internationally with the underwater concert Aquasonic. He is educated at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and the International Center for Knowledge in the Arts in Copenhagen. He teaches sound art and music production at the youth club Musikloftet in Copenhagen. - www.morten-poulsen.dk

Supported by the Danish Arts Foundation, KODA Culture and Vesterbro Lokaludvalg. Thanks to Anders Aarvik and MUVE.

Artists

Morten Poulsen
Ben Rodney
Utæt

Practical

Opening:
October 04, 17:00 – 19:00

Additional opening hours:
October 05-06, 13.00-15.30
October 12-13, 13.00-15.30
October 19-20, 13.00-15.30

By appointment:
October 05 – October 20

Address:
Halmtorvet 11D, DK-1700 Copenhagen

Documentation

Impact. Materials: Audio (03:00), 6 audio exciters, 2 walls (250x134cm each), 6 metal beams (120-170cm each). Description: Systems of power take many forms. They permeate as ideas, and settle as norms. They are enforced by authorities, borders and walls. In the installation Impact, the recordings of a body, as it repeatedly runs into a wall and a grand piano, is played back via exciters (vibrational loudspeakers) attached to a wall in the exhibition space. The installation urges the listener to reflect on their position: on which side of the wall am I?

The Ideal Is Wrong. Materials: Song (07:00 min), 2 PA speakers on stands, 1 textile banner. Dimensions: Variable. Description: The Ideal Is Wrong is a project in which Morten collaborated with the danish band Utæt (which translates to “Leaky”). Merging his research into political theory, art and activism, with Utæt’s punk-infused music and their firsthand experiences as young and queer individuals, they created a music composition with profound political undertones. A song, a situation, an opportunity to rage against political systems and their imperialist wars, against capitalist systems and their destruction of the planet, against the gender binary and stupid boxes. At the same time, the making of this song was also a process of working out how to be together. How to listen to each other. How to create together. To find solidarity. The Ideal is Wrong premiered in March as a public installation, echoing through the streets of Esbjerg, Denmark. The police were confused: “Is this an undeclared protest?”. Perhaps we need to protest in as many ways as we can.

Ladder Space is an artist-run exhibition- and project space located in a stable building at Halmtorvet

Ladder Space is an artist-run exhibition- and project space located in a stable building at Halmtorvet

Morten Poulsen Resistance Loudness Echo