The installation of the Lundahl & Seitl duo, The Infinite Conversation, created for Magasin 3 in Stockholm, asks the question of autonomy – that is, the condition of existence – of a work of art and builds a space that takes on substance only if its visitors take part in the experiment proposed. Led by the hand into a room plunged into total darkness, they hear unknown and sometimes strange voices holding several live conversations in which they can blend their own voices, projected in their turn in this gallery that is “as dark as the Lascaux cave”. So it is the perceptions of the participants that give substance to this disembodied exhibition space whose main function is to absorb then record the passages of different visitors. The Infinite Conversation is also a story in which conversation becomes a journey through possible places and times, cadenced by the free string of questions, comments and remarks. Creating the “zero degree” in the participants, by making this agitation and murmur of bodies vanish is also, for Lundahl & Seitl, conducting a political experiment that queries the relationship between taking the floor and taking power. By making any identification of the source of statements impossible, their “black room” inverses the usual hierarchies and invites the visitor to ponder the necessity that drives him to express an opinion. MS
Production
production Lundahl & Seitl commissioned by Magasin 3
coproduction Festival d'Avignon
with the support of: the British Council
and with the École supérieure d'Art d'Avignon
Swedish tour: Weld, in association with Riksutställningar