Herman Kolgen, 'Inject', 2012, Hengrove Pool, Bristol. Image courtesy of the artist and Picture This
Synopsis
For one day only, artist and audiocinetic sculptor Herman Kolgen’s award-winning installation Inject will open free to the public at Hengrove Park Leisure Centre. Projected on a giant screen at Hengrove’s Olympic size pool this work is staged as part of Hengrove Park Public Art Programme.
A human body is injected in a cistern. Over the course of 45 minutes, the pressure of the liquid exerts upon him multiple neurosensorial transformations. From his epidermal fiber to his nervous system, he reacts to influxes of viscosity in this liquid chamber. His cortex, lacking oxygen, gradually loses all notions of the real. Like a human guinea pig: a matter-body whose psychological states are the object of kinetik tableaux, of singular temporal spaces.
The genesis of the principal visual material for this project was a shoot, in an immense cistern filled with water, which lasted six consecutive days. The body (Yso) had to be immersed for over eight hours a day in the glass tank, oscillating between weightlessness and lack of oxygen. With the aid of various digital video recording and photographic systems Kolgen assembled many series of temporal sequences, images that he then assembled into a flexible and modular body. It’s a matter of a narrative progression, in perpetual circles of influence and movement, where the real is in dislocation.
INJECT is a modular performance in VIDEO HD format and multichannel audio.
Herman Kolgen
Recognized for his multimedia creations for over twenty years, Herman Kolgen is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Montreal. A true audiocinetic sculptor, he draws his primary material from the intimate relationship between sound and image. Kolgen works to create objects that assume the form of installations, video and film works, performances and sound sculptures. Constantly exploring; he works at the junctures of different media, as well as elaborating a new technical language and singular aesthetic.
His multifaceted work is, above all, characterized by a radiographic approach to neurosensory imprints and stimuli. It’s this x-ray effect, with its immaterial quality, which allows the invisible to be seen: the internal intensity of sensitive reactions. Inspired by this tension, as brutal as it is fragile, he constructs recurrent narrative fissions in which temporal friction constitutes the epicenter of his work. In contrast, the notion of the organic is at the core of his conceptual preoccupations. Combined and associated with the digital and the electronic across a work of extreme sensitivity, the latter is then diverted towards hybrid and indeterminate forms.
His installation practice equally integrates a vital work of spatialisation, notably regarding the aspect of sound. The creation and use of random systems of autogenerative image/sound also allows the creation of audiophonic spaces marked by their immersive quality. Notable also are Herman Kolgen’s numerous collaborations with fellow audio artists and electronic/electroacoustic music composers (Taylor Deupree, AGF, Sawako, Akira Rabelais, etc).
From 1996 to 2008, Herman Kolgen has dedicated the majority of his time to the duo SKOLTZ_KOLGEN. His creations have been presented at renowned festivals and events, such as: Berlin Transmediale, DE _ ISEA 2004, (Finland-Estonia) _ Venice Biennale, IT _ Ars Electronica, AT _ Sonic Acts, NL _ Centre Georges Pompidou, FR _ Cimatics, BE _ Dissonanze, IT _ Mutek, MTL, MX _ Elektra, MTL _ Sonar, ES _ Tapei Digital Arts, CN _ Shanghai eARTS, CN.
In addition to his participation in the Venice Biennale in 2006, Herman Kolgen is the recipient of numerous prestigious prizes, including QWARTZ, ARS ELECTRONICA, The Festival Nouveau Cinema Nouveaux Médias de Montréal, the Best Experimental Film Award from the Independent Film Festival of New York and Los Angeles, and the Prix du Conseil Général from the Festival International Vidéoforme de Clermont-Ferrand (France).
