Silence! / Emphasis of Absence

Since John Cage’s famous piece 4’33’’, we have been able to grasp and put a name on this special feeling when sound that was not intended to become a music piece catches our attention and triggers emotions, as if it was a found object.

Wach’s work, an amplified and looped sound of an old fluorescent lamp, used this effect and further strengthened it. This sound is typical of the time we live in, typical of old libraries, offices, and corridors where we wait. Here, in the Pharmacy building, it was a found sound. It resonated all the more characteristically against the backdrop of the silent, abandoned building. Being the only element introduced into an existing room, it ‘furnished’ the space. This subtle intervention fit in with the sound art current, which has been developing in Poland in recent years.

> Antoni Burzyński

photo: Justyna Fedec