The Morning Line Launches in Istanbul

Matthew Ritchie, ArandaLasch, and Arup AGU, The Morning Line. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. Photo: Todd Eberle.

Opening May 22, 2010

Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary is celebrating Istanbul’s art program, European Capital of Culture 2010, with the anti-pavilion The Morning Line by Matthew Ritchie, Aranda/Lasch, and Arup AGU.

Inaugurated at the 3rd International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville, The Morning Line is a public art structure, 8 meters high and 20 meters long, built of 17 tons of black-coated aluminum. The structure explores the disciplinary interplays between art, architecture, music, mathematics, cosmology, and science. Developed during a three-year research period, The Morning Line challenges architectural convention. The team of collaborators has designed the first semasiographic building. Semasiographic refers to a non-linear architectural language based on fractal geometry and parametric design that directly expresses its content through its visual structure.

The Morning Line, as much a building as an instrument, also serves as a platform for contemporary music. The structure is saturated with fifty speakers, using a unique interactive ambisonic sound system conceived by the Music Research Centre of York University. Since it is important that The Morning Line reflect the space and location it occupies, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary has commissioned new compositions by Erdem  Helvac?o?lu, Cevdet Erek and others curated by MIAM - Centre for Advanced Studies in Music, Istanbul.

In addition, guest sound curator Russell Haswell has invited Jana Winderen, Peter Zinovieff, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, and Yasunao Tone to conceive eight new acoustic works for The Morning Line as it exists in Istanbul. The eight new compositions will be played alongside the soundscapes selected by Bryce Dessner and Florian Hecker for Seville. The new electro-acoustic compositions premiere on the opening weekend of May 22-24, 2010 in Istanbul and will be performed over the next few following months.

For further information, www.en.istanbul2010.org

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