Nightscape 1-7

Ive Stevenheydens

Daily situations and routines are the starting point for Pieter Geenen's work. His temperate video and sound essays subtly draw our attention to the phenomena by which we seldom stand still, the ones that go by unnoticed or that even might have become invisible in the hypermediatized world we live in.

Geenen's series of sound creations 'nightscape' - the title is an allusion to the (fashionable) term 'soundscapes' - is a manipulated rendition of the field recordings he made in the nightly landscapes of the province of Limburg. The artist rigorously selected the specific place and time to make his recordings beforehand, keeping in mind the sonar qualities. Once edited and manipulated, the sounds almost seem to directly reproduce the sonority of a 'public' atmosphere at night time. Hitherto there are seven recordings, amongst which registrations of an industrial area near Genk, the direct neighbourhood of Hasselt's mega dancing Versuz and a main road near a level crossing.

Usually a 'nightscape' is exposed and listened to in a rather big, totally darkened room where the visitor/listener is free to walk around in. This artificial night makes the visitor rely only on his hearing, thus obliging him to focus on the sound. With 'nightscape', Geenen tries to render the 'inaudible' audible and make the 'invisible' visible again. After all, sonority, which in its 'normal' context would pass us by, which would seem all too ordinary or familiar, or would even be called 'silence', can be perceived (again). The sounds can furthermore be read while they stand on their own. Abstracted from their source, the sounds lack any connotation. 'nightscape' is a collection of monochrome sound sculptures too, filled with rich details, a series of 'compositions' true to the spirit of American minimalism.('Power Plays - Interior Desires, Exterior Spaces / Artists Collected / Platform Limburg Beeldende Kunsten 2006' - Platform Limburg Beeldende Kunsten, Hasselt, 2007)