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Christian Marclay: Sound Stories at LACMA

Christian Marclay, The Organ

Christian Marclay, “The Organ”, 2018, installation photograph, Christian Marclay x Snap: “Sound Stories” at Le Centre d’art La Malmaison, Cannes, © 2019, photo © Benoit Florençon.

Christian Marclay: Sound Stories at LACMA The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in collaboration with Snapchat presents the U.S. premiere of Christian Marclay: Sound Stories, an immersive audiovisual exhibition fusing art and technology. August 25 – October 14, 2019.]]>

Source: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

The project, a collaboration between the artist and Snapchat, draws on the sounds and images of everyday life found on the multimedia messaging app Snapchat. Using algorithms created by a team of engineers at Snap Inc., Marclay experimented with millions of publicly posted Snapchat videos to create five immersive audiovisual installations, two of which are interactive. Rooted in a sampling aesthetic fundamental to Marclay’s work, these installations respond to the storytelling available on Snapchat and visitors’ sounds and movements in the gallery space.

Over the past 35 years, Christian Marclay has explored the fusion of art and audio cultures. Though he studied art and is not a trained musician or composer, Marclay considers sound and musicality integral to his practice. In the 1970s he began using record turntables as musical instruments, creating compositions with loops, skips, and scratches. Since then, he has created musical recordings, prints, sculpture, performances, and video works that incorporate strategies of montage, improvisation, and appropriation. In 2010, Marclay premiered “The Clock”, a 24-hour single-channel montage constructed out of moments in cinema and television history that depict the passage of time. Acquired by LACMA in 2011, “The Clock” has become a signature work in the museum’s collection.

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Christian Marclay: Sound Stories at LACMA