In Aestu Solis | 2018
Solo exhibition at die raum, Berlin, curated by Lotte Møller
Electrical heaters,
neon spray paint, steel, polycarbonate, surface transducers, surround sound system
In
Aestu Solis (In the Heat of the Sun) is the third part of a trilogy of
works by Jens Settergren that utilise the tropics as an instance of a
(Western) collective imaginary: The tropical cast as a heterotopia
comprising both pure idyll, recreational tranquility and certain more
uncanny elements.
The piece made for die raum targets
the human senses by way of temperature, colour and sound. For all of
its apparent shortcomings and contrasts with regards to the environment
it aspires to simulate — the organic wildness being reduced to a rigid
and controlled simulacrum of basic sensual stimuli — the effort to do
so is that much more insistent.
The viewer is invited to take a seat
in a lounge chair equipped with transducers, facing a triptych of
sound-emitting neon-green radiators which most of all resemble a
domestic altar of television screens. The high temperature is coupled
with a synthetic 7-channel soundscape comprised of exotic birds,
crickets, ocean waves etc., which travel through bodies and
architecture.
- Curator Lotte Møller
Soundscape composed in collaboration with sound artist Sebastian Edin Supported by The Danish Arts Foundation Photo: Jan Windszus
