ARTER: THE HIDDEN SOUNDS OF NOTRE-DAME CATHEDRAL'S BELLS RESONATE IN ISTANBUL WITH BILL FONTANA'S SOUND INSTALLATION

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Sep 08, 2022, 06:55 ET

ISTANBUL, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On view from 13 September 2022 at Arter, Bill Fontana's sound installation Silent Echoes: Notre-Dame makes a hidden acoustic scene perceptible by allowing the ten mighty bells of Notre-Dame Cathedral, one of Paris' most emblematic monuments, to resound once more in Istanbul after the fire that seemingly sentenced them to silence in 2019.

Bill Fontana in Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris. Photo: Luca Bagnoli. (PRNewsfoto/Arter)

Bill Fontana's 10-channel sound installation Silent Echoes: Notre-Dame makes audible, in distinctive Fontana fashion, the slightest vibrations of the Notre-Dame Cathedral's bells as they respond to the ambient Parisian sounds. With special permission granted by the French authorities, Fontana places accelerometers on each one of the cathedral's ten bells so as to record their resonance while the building's restoration is still under way until 2024.

Conveying these mystical sounds from Paris to Istanbul through a live streaming infrastructure after its unveiling during an inaugural event through a speaker system placed on the terrace of the Centre Pompidou, one of Paris' iconic architectural landmarks, Silent Echoes: Notre-Dame intimately connects with John Cage's idea that "music is permanent; only listening is intermittent", and honours Arter with the privilege of being the first museum in the world to host the project outside Paris.

Visitors are granted the remarkable opportunity to experience the auditory environment laid out by Bill Fontana's Silent Echoes: Notre-Dame through ten speakers placed on Arter's -3 floor, concurrently with another work by the artist: Resounding Io, displayed in Arter's performance hall Karbon. Fontana's experimental video, produced in relation with Silent Echoes: Notre-Dame, will also be on display in Arter's Sevgi Gönül Auditorium.

Commission: Ircam – Centre Pompidou
Production: Bill Fontana Studio, Stephanie Camu, Southern & Partners Artist Management
Co-production: Ircam, Centre Pompidou
In partnership with Établissement public chargé de la conservation et de la restauration de la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
With the support of Hottinger Bruel & Kjaer, des Amis de Notre-Dame & Orange group
IRCAM computer music designers: Thomas Goepfer & Dionysios Papanikolaou