A response in sound, image and touch to the knowledge that shapes - and excludes - the world.

For over forty years, composer and sound artist Ewa Jacobsson has built up a growing archive of found objects, sounds and fragments. The archive is not systematised by theme or time, but has grown slowly, often intuitively. Some elements recur in several works, while others remain unused for years before finding their place.

Each element carries its own presence and story. A pearl can suggest adornment, but also patience, repetition and care. A piece of rubbish can carry traces of a movement. Sweet marzipan moulded into strange shapes and covered in toxic paint; decorative fragments that disturb rather than soothe. The materials are not symbolic - they are chosen for how they feel, what they do, how they sound, how they carry time.

In this installation, the archive is activated through sound. Each object contains a small loudspeaker and is part of a circuit in which sound signals travel between the objects without a fixed beginning or end. Some emit sound, others relay it.

At the centre of this moving system is Hilde Marie Holsen, Jacobsson's long-standing collaborator, who co-composes the work through acoustic and electronically processed trumpet sounds. Holsen's sonic language is woven into the circuit along with sound recordings from Ensemble Contrechamps. Their material flows between the objects and constantly creates new connections.

The work responds to an era characterised by rigorous demands for measurement and proof by turning to quieter and more patient ways of "scanning" and understanding the world. It suggests that knowledge can also emerge from what is scarce, overlooked or sensed rather than proven.

See when the installation will be shown and find tickets here.

The installation will be activated in a live performance with Jacobsson, Holsen and Contrechamps on 13 September during the concert The Question of Knowing. Read more about the concert here.

Concept and composition
Ewa Jacobsson
Hilde Marie Holsen
Ensemble Contrechamps, as guests

Lighting design
Gunnva Meinseth

In co-operation with
Henie Onstad Art Centre
Notam - Norwegian Centre for Technology, Art and Music

Supported by
Pro Helvetia
Cultural Council
Sparebankstiftelsen DNB as part of Henie Onstad + Ultima: Listening to the Legacy

Photo: Ewa Jacobsson by Anna Lerheim Ask, Hilde Marie Holsen by Julie Hrnčířová Abrakadabra.