The FarNear

The work “The FarNear” by Kat Válastur,  brings in the Basilica space of the Bode Museum a group of female performers. The works in the space are exclusively made by male artists of the Italian Renaissance. A wooden surface is precisely placed according to the ornament of the floor following the design. The female dancers activate a ritual in which they use the wooden surface to generate sound and music with sculptural extensions that are adapted on their bodies. The activation of the wooden primal speaker by their bodies produces a reverberation in the Basilica space that lasts 6 seconds. The work is based on the scientific fact that every sound or any other exterior parameter affects the physical condition of all  artworks in time. The work “The FarNear” creates a speculative condition in which the sound that is produced collectively by the female bodies and is manifested as a female sound monument could symbolically and speculatively affect and transform the art works that are in the space  and therefore destabilise their patriarchal historical roots.