Skikt Petra Gipp and Kim Hedås

Project rooms, Färgfabriken

Participating: Petra Gipp och Kim Hedås

Architecture and music in the installation Skikt.

Skikt is an artistic project, focusing on architecture and music, formed by architect Petra Gipp and composer Kim Hedås in 2011. The collaboration between the two artists has resulted in several new works, both temporary installations and permanent works. Project Skikt (in English: Stratum) explores how architecture/art and music/sound may gain widened dimensions as more layers are included in the totality.

Petra Gipp and Kim Hedås were represented at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, La 13. Mostra Internazionale di Architettura, with two new works: Part and Knot. The work Part was exhibited at the Palazzo Bembo as the only Swedish contribution at the exhibition ”Traces of Centuries & Future Steps” together with 57 architects from 26 different countries. Petra Gipp and Kim Hedås also participated with the work Knot at the Nordic Pavilion, where 32 Nordic architects were invited to the exhibition ”Light Houses”.

Part is a structure consisting of eleven cast cubes with membranes made out of parchment. The music is composed using surround sound which is played through seven loudspeakers, five cast into the structure and two placed in the space. The structure is mounted in a grid of thin steel tubes, from the floor to the ceiling, which is part of the idea of a three dimensional score. Complementing the work is a plan which explicates the process through sections/plans/views, musical instructions and texts.

Knot explores the reciprocity between the sound of a double choir and architecture arising from the interaction between a part cast in concrete and the other one cast in bronze, between the plan and the section which forms its counterpart. As they meet, a knot of void and matter emerges which frames the light from outside and allows it to play its way inwards together with the music.

The two works constitute part of an artistic investigation which intend to explore how architecture/art and music/sound may be broadened as more layers are added to the whole. Sound and structure interact to create new sequences which together build a polyphonically shifting piece. The architecture is defined through the material and its relationship to the music which in turn is reinforced by the space. Part and Knot inquire whether these layers can enhance the understanding of an architectural work and a musical work respectively, whether their reciprocity can reinforce each individual piece.

About the artists

Petra Gipp (b. 1967) is an architect, trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. The work of Petra Gipp has been published in a number of books and magazines, and it has been selected for numerous architecture awards and grants. Among her works are Ulriksdal Cemetery, Färgfabriken Kunsthall and Kivik Art Centre – Refugium.

Kim Hedås (b. 1965) is a composer, trained at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Her music has been performed by among others the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Kroumata, VOX, DalaSinfoniettan, pëarls before swine experience and the Gothenburg Opera. Kim Hedås has been awarded several prizes and grants. Kim Hedås is also working on a research project for a PhD in composition at the Gothenburg University.

The project Skikt is made possible by support from the Music Development and Heritage Sweden, the Swedish Arts Council and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.

Thanks to:

Daniel Araya, EMS
Genelec
John Hedman, Fasadkultur
Bergmans Konstgjuteri.Genelec