A series of 12 radio programmes envisaging radio as exhibition space

July 3 – September 18, 2006
Broadcast every Monday 8 – 9pm GTM on Resonance 104.4fm, London and online:
www.resonancefm.com

Curated by Anna Colin


'Radio Gallery' is a series of 12 commissioned radio programmes that treat one hour of radio as exhibition space. The contributors are artists and curators most of whom have not worked with radio before and whose practices do not necessarily have a relationship to sound. Thus, free of any convention attached to radio-making, they have been invited to develop and expand their artistic or curatorial practice onto the radio format. Responses to the invitation range from exhibitions devoted to Electronic Voice Phenomenon, propaganda or audio time capsules, to meta-radio shows.


CONTRIBUTORS

Âbäke | Thibaut de Ruyter | Raimundas Malasauskas |
Dirk Fleischmann, Nav Haq and Tirdad Zolghadr |
Loris Gréaud and Karl Holmqvist | Jeremy Deller and
Alex Farquharson | Olivia Plender | Matthieu Laurette |
Siniša Mitrovic and Susan Philipsz | Ryan Gander and
Francesco Manacorda | Konst2 and International Festival |
Steve Webber


Until about ten years ago the potential of radio as an artistic medium, which had exercised the imagination of avant-garde artists since the Futurists, was remote on account of the limited access non-professionals had to the airwaves. This changed with the emergence of a number of independent or freeform radio stations open to experimentation with the medium by artists, some made possible by the arrival of the Internet. Prominent examples include Resonance FM (London), WPS1 (New York), SR c (Stockholm), Radio Arte Mobile (Rome) and Ballongmagasinet (Oslo). Curators and institutions have since contributed to this situation, collaborating with radio stations on a project basis - such as the 3rd Berlin Biennale and Reboot.fm (2004), WPS1 and WKCR with Performa05 (2005) and the 1st Athens Biennale and ArtwaveRadio (2006) - or by establishing radio stations, as in 'Radiodays', De Appel, Amsterdam (2005).

The forerunner to these developments was 'Radio Loops' by the Canadian artist Ian Murray in 1967, preceding by a year or two the first use of television as an artistic medium by artists and curators ('Black Gate Cologne', 1968 by Otto Piene and Aldo Tambellini and 'Television Gallery', 1969 - 1970 by Gerry Schum). This was followed, some ten years later, by 'Radio by Artists' (1978 - 1980), a series of ten 30 minute programmes, each curated by Murray, which involved General Idea, Michael Asher, Vito Acconci and Stephen Willats, amongst others. Taking the form of both solo and group exhibitions, 'Radio by Artists' shared similar principles with Gerry Schum's 'Television Gallery': besides a brief introduction, the art works were presented on their own terms, free of commentary. Another noteworthy early, isolated case of air space being made available to artists was 'Kunst zum Hören' (Art to Listen to), a chapter in Heidi Grundmann's weekly programme 'Kunst heute' (Art today) (1976 - 1984) on ORT (Austria), which was dedicated to broadcasting works by visual artists. London would have to wait until 1998 to witness the first signs of similar activity. This was Resonance 104.4fm's predecessor Resonance 107.3fm, a month-long radio art event set up by the London Musicians' Collective at the invitation of John Peel, curator of Meltdown 98 at the South Bank Centre.

Today, despite increased access to the radio for artists and the proliferation of collaborations between art institutions and radio stations, radio, when used by institutions, is often relegated to the status of secondary site as an extension of the traditional physical exhibition. Often one suspects that the primary motivation has to do with marketing, the appeal being radio's potential to reach new, non-gallery going audiences. Rarely would an institution go all the way and substitute the exhibition space for radio waves. Possible exceptions are 'Radiodays' (2005) and Rirkrit Tiravanija's radio play at the Serpentine Gallery (2005), whereby the exhibition space - or part of it in Tiravanija's case - was given over to a radio station, which functioned as an installation. And yet in both instances, the physical staging of the process could be interpreted as a reluctance to relinquish visuality altogether and embrace the inherently immaterial characteristics of radio as a medium.

'Radio Gallery' seeks to address these shortfalls by proposing radio as an exhibition space in its own right. Broadcast over twelve weeks, 'Radio Gallery' is a template for a programme with long-term ambitions, the prototype for a committed radiophonic art centre.

Related Events:

Saturday 22 July 2006 / 6 - 7.30pm
Curating for the Radio
At Cubitt, 8 Angel Mews, London N1 9HH. Free, no booking.

A discussion between Alex Farquharson, Raimundas Malasauskas, Olivia Plender and Loris Gréaud (via telepathy). Moderated by Anna Colin.
The four will share their experiences of curating and exhibiting on the radio in the context of their own practices, and in particular in relation to other exhibition formats, whether physical spaces, television or print. Addressing radio’s potential as an artistic medium and mode of dissemination, they will discuss the significance of its increasing use by artists, curators and institutions.

Radio Gallery will close at the autumn with an event curated by Carl Michael von Hausswolff & Lina Dzuverovic (Electra).

Radio Gallery is funded by Arts Council England. Partners are: Resonance FM, Electra, Cubitt, Gasworks and Electronest.
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www.radiogallery.org
info@radiogallery.org