Volkmar Klien

The Danube flows, people cross it. And some people simply watch what’s going on. Shielded from the noise of the bustle by the massive glass pane of the huge window of the LENTOS Reading Room, visitors enjoy a full view of the Nibelungen Bridge. The window attracts, directs and frames their gaze, while at the same time blocking the sound of the scene their eyes takes in. Visitors take a seat on a bench located in the middle of the Reading Room, where they are surrounded by eight loudspeakers. The speakers make the boundaries of audibility permeable along the interface between within and without marked by the glass pane. Microphones attached to the facade of the building pull the world outside the window into the room, where it is embedded in a multichannel electronic composition. The senses of hearing and seeing – inextricably conjoined beyond questioning in everyday life – drift apart almost unnoticeably and take up their station at the centre of a hybrid sound environment constructed by loudspeakers.

Photos by: Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz/APA-Fotoservice/Greindl, Fotograf/in: Philipp Greindl

With the generous support of: