Vostok

Contributors: JEAN-PHILIPPE UZAN/ ASTROPHYSICIST FROM IAP-CNRS, EDDIE LADOIRE/ COMPOSER, ATELIER VAN LIESHOUT/ artists.

The project takes its title from Vostok 1, the capsule which permitted Yuri Gagarin to b the first man in space in April 1961. Vostok is a sound and art installation about the universe. It wants to make audible various object of research which fascinate astrophysicists today: the life and death of a star, pulsars and supernovae, black holes, planetary systems, etc.

Starting from the idea that it is possible to feel, share and ultimately understand such objects through music, Vostok places visitors « Inside a galaxy » while they listen to a 26-minute soundtrack. The space journey is conjured up by the sounds created by Eddie Ladoire. For Vostok, the composer uses the full potential of electroacoustic music, the sound spectra used by astrophysicists to decipher the mysteries of the universe and even sounds which act physically on our bodies.

To make the experience more intense, the artists in Atelier Van Lieshout have designed a special listening booth which they have called Resistance. The booth can hold four to five listeners in rather rudimentary conditions, but how could it be otherwise since they imagined this makeshift shelter as the ultimate response of survivors caught up in a global catastrophe?

Vostok has joined  the Centre National des Arts Plastiques collections/ CNAP,  in 2012.

Exhibitions :
- THE BUTCHER, TOUR PANORAMA of LA FRICHE BELLE DE MAI, for MARSEILLE PROVENCE CAPITALE EUROPÉENNE DE LA CULTURE, MARSEILLE, JUL 3rd- DeC 31rst 2013
- VOSTOK, for NUIT BLANCHE, CITÉ DES ARTS, PARIS, OCT 1rst 2011
- VOSTOK, CITÉ DES SCIENCES ET DE L’INDUSTRIE, PARIS, DeC 7th 2010 – MARCH 13th 2011

Creations: 
- SOUND TRACK, by Eddie Ladoire, 26 min

- BOOTH, by AVL, 4/5 seats, metal, 2 x 2 x 3m

Opposite photographs : Sébastien Agnetti