TN

It’s a note posted on the door that sets the tone.
Noise to Free the Spirit. Noise to Find Myself; This preamble immediately clarifies the focus of Tetyana Nahaychuk’s research: sound is a matter of emancipation, of connection to oneself and to the world. In search of  ‘deep listening’, the installation conceived by the artist unfolds as a gradual immersion. The first space is a sound bath - a toneless, purely technical sound, like a hookup waiting for its signal. Its source
comes from the ceiling, and it could even be leaking from a smoke detector. This ‘neutral’ sound bath acts as a kind of airlock, awakening the ears, sharpening our receptivity. It continues as you enter the second space, marked by a blurred image projected on the wall, reminiscent of the ‘ snow ’ of old cathode-ray tube screens. You must then pass through a curtain of chains-which chime as you walk through-before reaching the final room. At the center, suspended metal panels display imperative or questioning messages, forming a circle to orbit around. The space then fills with a sound recording made by the artist at the Frankfurt train station, reworked and played through four loudspeakers. This creates a soundscape in which the rhythm of the rail
network, the murmur of travelers, and the diluted voice of public announcements blend together. A train station, as a public space filled with constant sonic distraction, is also a place of transport - in the deepest sense. By allowing ourselves to become porous to the sounds animating it, we may gain access to other mental spaces. In this way, the experience of constraint - evoked in Tetyana Nahaychuk’s practice through chains, the panopticon, or assertive phrases - can be transcended by the active practice of listening. As with musician and artist Pauline Oliveros, paying attention to the vibrations around us, to the sounds between the sounds, becomes a form of commitment - a search for inner and collective resonance.

Elsa Vattier, text for the DNESP edition of the Pavillon Bosio, Monaco, 2024