GRIMMUSEUM

sounds for soloists is the first solo exhibition
by Finlandswedish-born poet and
artist Cia Rinne (1973) taking place at the
Grimmuseum as part of a tour in Northern
Europe. sounds for soloists is a sonar
exhibition that presents how one single person
with a multilingual voice uses it as an
instrument to perform complex, yet minimal
compositions generated at the leap of global
multilingualism. The exhibition presents
two cross-lingual sound installations by Cia
Rinne, sounds for soloists (realized in collaboration
with Sebastian Eskildsen) and
sans y/eux, in mostly English, German, and
French, but also Swedish, Italian and Spanish.
Furthermore two of her text-based
installations indices and h/ombres as well as
the text installations notes for soloists and
serious cerises are on display. sounds for
soloists will be accompanied by a series of
performances by Tomomi Adachi (JP), Anders
Lauge Meldgaard/Frisk Frugt (DK), and
Cia Rinne. The exhibition and performance
program will go on tour to the Nordic exhibition
spaces Signal, Malmö, and The Living
Art Museum, Reykavik, in 2012-2013 thanks
to support from the Nordic Cultural Foundation
and Svenska Kulturfonden.
Cia Rinne, herself of a multilingual background,
writes highly playful conceptual
pieces evocative of Fluxus and Dada poetry.
In written form, the pieces appear as drawings
and composition text in line with the
traditions of concrete and visual poetry. With
a strict material and conceptual discipline,
Rinne reduces wide terrains of philosophical
and linguistic complexities to their very
essence or their sonar qualities: ”i am what
i am what i ami a mia mi ami a miami amen”,
“1/one/ohne/oh no/ ono/on/o/(oh no)”, “answer
this question carefully: o yes o no”.
Her work reflects on different ways of understanding
and using language, thought,
and sound. Her works, both readings, writings
and visuals, are liberated from the constraints
of certain artistic genres, they operate
freely on the borders of disciplines such
as poetry reading, writing, performance and
collage-making. sounds for soloists is
the first comprehensive show of Cia Rinne’s
cross-lingual text and sound art in Berlin.