Please… just lay down… lay down and listen – let this be the place.

 

A Place to Lay Down and Listen attempts to create more space, more places for listening in our collective public spaces. This will be done by gentle gestural intervention – by invitation and care – by evoking wonder and creation. By attempting to doing so, the project is thought to disrupt the norms of the intervened places. For some reason, roads with busy traffic are not a place for listening – apparently the square in front of the parliament is not where we go to listen. Our parks are only indirect, accidentally, there for the sake of listening. We hurry past endless of places with unique possibilities of listening and taking a break. We invite you to not hurry past – we invite you to stop up – to lay down – to lay down and listen.

 

How is ‘just’ laying down and listening aggressive, artistic and activistic?

This is a project building itself up over time – we are not in a hurry to produce and show. We are just waiting, leaving spaces and gestures for listening to manifest in our public space, relations and living.

The project is a continuation and expansion of phase VII of the A Living Room as a White Cube for Listening project.

 

The project will be running throughout spring, summer and fall of 2023.

 

The project is supported by Nørrebro Lokaludvalg.

 

lay, baby, lay – a possible textual starting point by philosopher Angelica Stathopoulos commissioned for the project.

 

 

Link to online text version of lay, baby, lay.

In what way can laying down and listening be a soft, poetic and caring form of radical boundless resistance?

 

 

Examples of works to which you can lay down and listen:

Ånd

The work by percussionist and composer Ying-Hsueh Chen is composed by 15 different peoples breathings, it searches for the human experience, our bodies own rhythms and sound universe. Ying-Hsueh Chen describes it as an artistic, erotic and spiritual piece of music.

lay, baby, lay

A reading of text by the writer, philosopher and translater Angelica Stathopoulos, offering a contextual framework for the ‘A Place to Lay Down and Listen’ project.

The Goldberg Variation (Bach Clock)- for one, two or more pianists (2012) 

The whole piece by artist/composer Jesper Norda consists of Johan S. Bach’s original Goldberg Variation stretched to 12 hours and 25 minutes, where each note in the original score is struck at even intervals, every two seconds. The rythm is evened out, the dynamics are flattened: every sense of musical direction is gone.

Tectonics 

toechter is a band researching the use of string instruments in sound design. They have generously allowed us to play some of their tracks/soundsscapes as part of the project.

Suggested user-instructions for A Place to Lay Down and Listen:

1. Lay down in the designated area.

2. Make yourself comfortable…

3. Start to listen…

4. You can stop listening and leave the designated area whenever your want and on your own accord.

 

We do not want or aim for a sudden outcome of the experience, and we wish you well.

 

Thank you for taking time to lay down and listen.

Questions for A Place to Lay Down and Listen:

One might wonder: which sounds can only be heard while laying down?

 

Does the earth reach up toward you differently, now when your body covers a larger area?

 

How is it to lay next to another (perhaps a stranger) – and just listen?

 

Do your way of listening change over time – how after 5 minutes, after 30 minutes?

 

When do sleep take over from listening? And how does listening stay with you while sleeping?

 

Does a space or place change by having someone laying down in it? Does it change by listening in it?

 

What are those spaces that you are not supposed to lay down and listen?

Selected photo documentation:

A single place to lay down and listen and its view of the sky