Sound Work Location: Château de la Napoule, Mandelieu-la-Napoule, France.Dimensions: 4 x 5 meters.
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archtype for a group of unique works
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Max Neuhaus - Site independent sound works and the individual collector, 2002
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The new work at La Napoule is a continuation of the direction I began with the work in Venice Biennal in 1999 - a sound work which can be relocated.
The text panel of its drawing reads:
Passing along / a walkway / in a formal / garden, / one encounters / a place / with air / of a different / density.
The work forms a 'place' four by five meters along the main walkway of the formal garden in front of the chateau. It is quite magical. When you walk into it you feel as if you have walked through an invisible wall into a new domain.
As well as using the underground sound sources I invented for Venice which make the work independent of any physical structure, here I have made the sound itself independent as well, detaching it from the site and making it more present.
I plan a series individual works where this specific sound is placed in different contexts. Each work will have its own drawing with image and text reflecting the differences resulting from the sound's new aural and visual surround.
This new form makes it possible for the individual collector to become a commissioner of a Neuhaus sound work for the first time. First of all, it eliminates the complex sound construction phase on site and allows a person to hear the work before deciding to acquire it. The installation can also now be accomplished with local manpower - several days of a mason's time and a half day of an electrician's. Neuhaus' personal involvement consists of an initial site visit where, together with the collector, he selects the location for the work, and then a return trip once its physical installation is complete to fine tune the final sound level.
These works can be realized in different dimensions depending on the specific site chosen, thus fitting into private scale and reducing price well below the eighty to one hundred thousand dollar figure that is the minimum for the large scale public works.
Max Neuhaus
Note
Between the summer and fall of 2001, Max Neuhaus held an exhibition at the La Napoule Art Foundation, in the Château de La Napoule in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, France. The exhibition, entitled “An Exhibition of Works on Paper,” focused on his drawings and works on paper.
Exhibition features
Content: The drawings, often made in colored pencil, featured stripes or “vectors” reminiscent of musical staves, a visual representation of his sound thoughts.
Sound representation: For Neuhaus, drawing was a way to figure and make visible the otherwise ephemeral sound experience of his installations.
Context: The exhibition was part of a series of exhibitions in which Neuhaus presented his works on paper, including exhibitions at the Christine Burgin Gallery in New York and the PS1 Contemporary Art Center, also in 2001.
Archive: Documents related to the exhibition, including plans and catalogs, are preserved in the Max Neuhaus archives at Columbia University.