Listening Room and Balcony
Sound Art Department

May- june 2024

During the months of May and June 2024 the SAD welcome Francis Dhomont. Francis Dhomont, a prolific sound artist and composer born in Paris in 1926, composed some of his work during the vibrant summer nights of Les Baux-de-Provence and Saint-Remy-de-Provence, where he set up his first own recording studio in 1951. A close friend of the Danish sound poet and advocate of ecosophy* Knud Viktor, with whom he shared a contagious enthusiasm for the soundscapes of the Alpilles and the Lubéron, he died in Avignon on 28th December 2023 at the age of 97, to the relative indifference of the French media, leaving behind an extensive body of work.

Listening Balcony, May, Beneath the Gaze of a Black Sun (1979-1981, 51’35” ), June Deep Forest (1994-1996, 58’32”), Cycle of depths

At the end of the 1970s, Francis Dhomont, who had discovered the anti-psychiatry movement, read and worked on the writings of Ronald D. Laing, in particular Knots, his collection of poetic texts on the confusions of the mind and the difficulties of relationships.

Beneath the Gaze of a Black Sun deals with schizophrenia. This composition, arranged in nine successive scenes, is inspired by the book The Divided Self. It is a good example of an approach that led him to a composition close to opera in its dramaturgy, but an opera without singers, without instruments and completely free of the conventions of lyrical art.

Inspired by the essay by Bruno BettelheimPsychoanalysis of Fairy Tales. This is the second part of a triptych that began with Beneath the Gaze of a Black Sun. This work, in turn, bears witness to a sensitivity to psychoanalysis.

Listening Room, Figures of the night (1991-1992, 27’15”)

“I’ve always loved the night. It fascinates, attracts and embraces me; it draws me in. I love its intimacy, complicity and contemplation, and the time that is suspended until dawn, in Provence in the springtime, to the song of the nightingales. Nighttime also means sleep, dreams, sometimes nightmares and fear. For some, it’s the night is eternal; for others, it’s a night of love. White nights, inky nights, gentle nights or deep nights: a night transformed... So many faces of the night. Night is kind to me.” F.D.

DIARY

Radio
The “To tie” issue of Métaclassique about Francis Dhomont. A program hosted by David Christoffel. In the presence of the visual artist Inès Wickmann and the sound engineer and writer Daniel Deshays, with participation - slightly delayed - by psychoanalyst Brigitte Lalvée.

June 8 | 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm - museum bookshop - Free entrance

Movie
My cinema for the ear. A documentary film by Uli Aumüller (2000, 59’) Production ARTE and ZDF. Through a look that is both impressionistic and humorous on nature and creative process, this documentary features two composers with different orientations, Francis Dhomont and Paul Lansky, and follows their search for a musical art based on the recording of their environment.

Moirures. Francis Dhomont/Inès Wickmann Videomusique, (2005, 13’16). In Moirures, the images only reveal the music, like a score of shapes, textures, and colors. The origin of these abstract images comes from reflections on the water and on windows in a permanent vibration.

June 9 | 11 aM - 5 pm - Gallery Bistro Phonurgia Nova 19, place Honoré Clair