Sound Poem

source: tanyaleighton

Pavel Büchler is a Czech-born, UK-based artist, influential teacher and occasional writer. Büchler belongs to a generation of artists directly influenced by the discoveries of 1970s conceptual art – or, as he insists, by the creative misunderstandings that conceptual art suffered in translation to the Eastern European cultural and political context. Summing up his own practice as “making nothing happen”, he is committed to the catalytic nature of art – its potential to draw attention to the obvious and revealing it as ultimately strange.

He is the winner of the 2009 Northern Art Prize.

Recent solo exhibitions include Max Wigram, London (2010), Kunstparterre, Munich (2010), DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague (2010), annex14, Bern, Switzerland (2009), Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow (2009), ‘L’imitation’, Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin (2009), Max Wigram, London (2009), Stephane Simoens, Knokke, Belgium (2009), Sleeper, Edinburgh (2008), annex14, Bern (2007), Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2007), objectif_exhibitions/MuHKA, Antwerp, (2007), Kunsthalle Bern (2006), Goethe Institut, Dublin (2006).

He has recently participated in ‘After Silence’ (curated by Pedro Porellano), La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2011), ‘Image to be projected until it vanishes’ (curated by Mihnea Mircan), Museion, Bolzano, Italy (2011), ‘Luc Tuymans: A Vision of Central Europe; The Reality of the Lowest Rank’ (curated by Luc Tuymans), Aurentshuis, Bruges (2010), ‘Under Destruction’ (curated by Gianni Jetzer), Tinguely Museum, Basel (2010), ‘No New Thing Under the Sun’, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2010), ‘The History of Art, The Curator’s Series 3’ (curated by Mihnea Mircan), David Roberts Foundation, London (2010), ‘Modern Dialect’ (curated by Wim van den Abbeele), Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen (2010), ‘FischGrätenMelkStand’ (curated by John Bock), Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin (2010), ‘Distance and Sensibility’ (curated by David Thorp), Calvert 22, London (2010), ‘The Art of Design’ (curated by Tereza Kotyk), Freiraum / Museumsquartier, Vienna (2010), ‘The Way We Do Art Now’ (selected by Pavel Büchler), Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin (2010), Northern Art Prize, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds (2009), ‘The Black Page’, Shandy Hall Gallery, Coxwold, United Kingdom (2009), ‘The Human Stain’ (curated by Ellen Blumenstein), Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (catalogue), ‘Afterwards’ (curated by Sharon Kivland), Mean Gallery, Coventy, United Kingdom (2009), Frieze projects (new commission, 2008), ‘Whatever Happened to Social Democracy?’ (co-curated with Charles Esche, Rooseum, Malmö, 2005), ‘Off-Key’, Kunsthalle Bern (2005), the 9th Istanbul Biennial (2005), ‘The Grand Promenade’, National Museum of Modern Art, Athens (2006), ‘Involved’, Shangart Gallery, Shanghai (2008), and other group exhibitions in the UK and Europe.

A new monograph on his work, ‘Absentmindedwindowgazing’, was published in Summer 2007 (Veenman Publishers, Rotterdam).
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source: maxwigram

Studio Schwitters is Pavel Büchler’s homage to Dada artist Kurt Schwitters sound poem, The Ursonate, his ‘primal sonata’ or conception of what a sonata would have looked like and sounded before the invention of language. Using a digital German speech programme, Büchler made it read the entire text of The Ursonate, impressively producing its own alien interpretation of Schwitters’ original twenty-one minute sung version of the sonata. The programme resolutely mashes T he Ursonate’s very classical structure, radically changing content and structure, and extending the piece to thirty-nine minutes.

Considered by many to be one of the most influential and important great sound poems of the twentieth century, The Ursonate, has been reinterpreted by sound artists around the world. Schwitters’ own recording of it was lost for many years, finally turning up in Holland in the late 1980s.

Pavel Büchler describes his work as ‘making nothing happen’, considering art as a catalyst to reveal the everyday and the obvious as ultimately bizarre. He manipulates literature, found objects, old audio recordings and photographs, obsolete technologies and other media, making it relevant to the present.

Pavel Büchler is an artist, lecturer and writer, based in Manchester. He is the winner of the 2009 Northern Art Prize and has had solo shows at Max Wigram Gallery, Tanya Leighton (Berlin) and annex14 (Bern). Forthcoming projects include a solo exhibitions at Kunstparterre (Munich, Germany) and his participation in the group show Luc Tuymans: A Vision of Central Europe in Bruges (Belgium); recently a large retrospective of his work was held at DOX, Prague (2010); he also showed in The Human Stain at Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.