Susan Stenger: Soundtrack for an Exhibition

The book, Soundtrack for an Exhibition, is a record and exploration of the themes presented in an exhibition by the same name conceived by Mathieu Copeland and co-produced by Forma and the Musée de Art Contemporain Lyon in 2006.

The exhibition was formed around the slowly evolving juxtaposition of three distinct elements: a music composition by Susan Stenger; the screening of the entire footage shot in the making of The King is Alive by Dogme95 filmmaker Kristian Levring; and an exhibition of chemically changing paintings: Slow Rot works by the late American painter Steven Parrino, and large-scale commissioned Puddle Paintings and Pour Paintings created in situ by Swiss artist John Armleder.

Each element in the show played alchemically off the others as the paintings slowly metamorphosed and the changing light from the film rendered alternate colours and effects on the shimmering surfaces of the canvases, set against the layered, time-shifting, 96-day-long soundtrack. The individual and collective evolution of the soundtrack, paintings and film achieved what curator Mathieu Copeland describes as the ‘fragmentary unity’ that defined the entire exhibition.

In Copeland's words, "The soundtrack itself became in turns, and at times simultaneously, the soundtrack for a film, for an exhibition of paintings, for an empty space and for the unforeseen elements and events it encountered."

Stenger's long-duration score was derived from an archetypal song structure, made up of typical components: Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Outro. The structure of the Bridge initially defined the structure of the Soundtrack, as Stenger expanded the ‘middle eight’ from eight bars to eight days, so setting the pattern for the rest of the composition, as she built up underlying chord progressions through drones, expanding one bar to last one day throughout. She constructed each verse from layers of sounds, gestures and harmonies associated to a particular genre group (Easy Listening, Folk/Country/Blues, Rock/Metal), exploring and subverting conventional vocabulary in varying timeframes, while re-contextualizing and heightening the emotional content.

A key component of Stenger's approach to the composition was her process of involving long-time collaborator Robert Poss and additional contributors Andria Degens, F.M. Einheit, Warren Ellis, Bruce Gilbert, Kim Gordon, Alexander Hacke, Jennifer Hoyston, Ulrich Krieger, Spider Stacy, Mika Vainio, Alan Vega, and Jm White. In creating the piece, she also 'curated' it, treating the other musicians almost as elements of her composition, selecting and arranging them as she did her own instruments and sounds. Rather than working together, they were invited individually to add specific parts, bringing their own sensibilities and idiosyncratic responses to instructions or suggestions from Stenger, rather like the Surrealist game Exquisite Corpse. The resulting tension between the meticulous control of orchestration and arrangement and the free decision-making of others is an integral part of the work.