wanderlust

The Impossibility of Silence

Put yourself in artist Miha Erman’s shoes, or in this case, room: Imagine being locked away in a dark room void of sensory input. But not just any isolated room: you are in the quietest place on earth. The sound-proof walls are designed to absorb all the sound waves and are built to isolate noise sources from the outside. You would expect to find absolute silence, wouldn’t you?

This type of room, a place with no echoes, is known as anechoic chamber. In 1951, the composer John Cage entered into one of these rooms expecting to find silence and nothing else. Instead of that, he heard sounds from his own body, realizing that even in a place designed for total silence he would still find sound and this would follow him for the rest of his life. Inspired by this, the multimedia artist Miha Erman decided to spend longs hours inside an anechoic chamber. This experience led him to create a dance performance and later to make photographs and videos under the same concept. The exhibition ‘‘Room with no Echo’’ opens this Friday (July 13th, 2012) at Galerie Kuchling. We interviewed the artist ahead of his opening to learn more about what motivates his art and what we can expect from the exhibition.

Miha Erman

Miha Erman’s photography inspired by his performance reflects his fears inside the dark chamber.

BAPS: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your artwork.
M.: For some kind of bohemian intention, I have decided to study sculpture in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Soon after that I became interested in film, performing arts and sound. I then got a master’s degree at a film school, but it was still deeply connected to sculpture. I was always concerned about the haptic of the body – it’s possible representation in different art medias, body-motion, body-emotion and … fear of it.

BAPS: Why did you decide to experience an anechoic chamber?
M.: I went to an anechoic chamber in 2009, after I was reading a lot about sounds. After deep research, it seemed like a perfect starting point for a continuous project, which I named ‘‘Room with no Echo.’’  It changed my perception of self and space, since all I could find was my own body. This led me to create a performance, featured in Ljubljana (2010) and Florence, Italy (2011).

BAPS:  And how did your performance inspire you to develop an exhibition?
M.: The exhibition was the second stage of the project. It has the same idea and also some materials of the performance. What was intriguing for me was how to present the body of the performer, even when he isn’t on a stage. Placing a body that wasn’t there could rise in the visitor’s imagination as something entirely new. And that’s also what a visitor can expect from the exhibition – a subjective implementation of my own experience of an anechoic chamber.

BAPS: What drove you to leave Slovenia and move to Germany?
M.: After 2004 I was regularly coming to Berlin. Since my first time coming here, I felt that Berlin was a very relaxed city. But, at that at the same time, it had a large amount of mental fluidity, which for me was lacking in Ljubljana. I like various places here, especially the little forests. Berlin has changed a lot since my first time here, but it still has some of the charm left.

BAPS: And is there a place here that reminds you of your experience inside an anechoic chamber and that you visit when you want to be alone?
M.: I didn’t come to Berlin to be alone. But still when I feel like being alone I actually go out of Berlin. I adore the countryside just out of the city, with the lakes and the forest. Running in the nature gives me creative peace and ideas for my work. It’s like an anechoic chamber turned inside out.

  • Galerie Kuchling “Room with no Echo,” Miha Erman. Opens July 14th and runs until August 11th 2012.  

Be the first to write a comment.

Your feedback