we didn’t want to leave

The Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève is pleased to present a series of new works by Hannah Weinberger in a major solo exhibition. The Swiss artist is the winner of the 2018 Swiss Emerging Artist Prize of Societe Generale Private Banking Switzerland.

Collaboration and participation are the hallmarks of Hannah Weinberger’s artistic practice. Her works rely on the potential of sound and the characteristics of the spaces invested to foster collective gatherings or endow spectators with a performative role. This offers them a central role in the experience. The background noises caught red-handed, the atmospheric buzzes of social life, and the synthetic percussive rhythms generated by moving crowds often constitute the preface of Weinberger’s pieces. Her sound compositions streamline social cacophony into minimal soundtracks, free of dramatic crescendos, referential tempos, or algorithmic prowess.

Weinberger’s first sound creations involved many contributors. More recently, it is the visitors themselves who, by their very presence, contribute to the activation of her works. Behind the artist’s apparent economy of means and immaculate spaces lies a careful study of the spaces and complex technical devices. Her discreet interventions transform the exhibition space into a genuine experimental platform, allowing the public to shape its own environment: a tailor-made experience within a work in constant evolution.

As they enter the Centre’s spaces, the spectators, like musicians, activate and orchestrate the exhibition, which is titled we didn’t want to leave. In order to offer the visitor a unique and ephemeral immersive experience, the artist engaged in extensive technical research with experts to develop a mech- anism that is barely perceptible, despite its complexity. Rather than offering the audience a journey with a final destination, Hannah Weinberger seeks to place it in a form of full awareness of the moment and the present space. we didn’t want to leave evokes this sound flow in movement, in the grip of everyone’s drift. Spectators can stop, observe, or simply let themselves be carried away by the waves they generate. The visitors’ movements and interactions will be the driving force of the project.

This exhibition is produced with the support of Societe Generale Private Banking Switzerland as main partner.