For the publication of the book Polyphone, the editors Claudia Tittel (tbc) and Anne Zeitz will present the book in discussion with the authors Mathilde Arnoux, Daniele Balit (tbc), Katja Gentric, Thibaut de Ruyter (tbc) and Anne Yanover.

Polyphone brings together works by artists that reflect the merging of multiple sounds and voices in convergent or divergent constellations. From different points of view and historical as well as geographical contexts — from the 1970s to today, from countries as Germany, France, Japan and South Africa — the artists question the effect and power of plural voices and sounds. Polyphone challenges perceptual modes as well as socio-cultural and political issues in relation to polyphony. The works reveal the significations of the sonic congruence between the multiple and the organised, the individual and the collective, harmony and discordance in contemporary society. It also puts into light the different aspects of polyphony from the desire of unity to the representation of conflictual phenomena via sonic experiences.

Le livre est paru dans le cadre de l’exposition éponyme qui s’est tenue à la Kunstsammlung Gera en 2021 et qui voyagera au musée d’art et d’histoire Paul Eluard de Saint-Denis en 2022 (20/05-07/11/2022). Il a été réalisé sous la direction de Claudia Tittel et Anne Zeitz avec des textes de Mathilde Arnoux, Daniele Balit, Katja Gentric, Tomotaro Kaneko, Sebastian Klotz, Brigitta Milde, Thibaut de Ruyter, Claudia Tittel, Anne Yanover et Anne Zeitz. Il réunit des illustrations et des textes sur les travaux de Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Félicia Atkinson, Oliver Beer, Candice Breitz, Carlfriedrich Claus, Kazumichi Fujiwara, institute for incongruous translation (Natascha Sadr Haghighian et Ashkan Sepahvand), Rolf Julius, Euridice Zaituna Kala, Christina Kubisch, Rie Nakajima, Olaf Nicolai, Vincent Meessen, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Max Neuhaus, Ute Pleuger, Matthieu Saladin, Lerato Shadi, Dennis Tyfus et Jorinde Voigt. Conception graphique du livre par Elsa Kuno.

Polyphone is funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes and the Fonds PERSPEKTIVE für zeitgenössische Kunst & Architektur du Bureau des arts plastiques de l’Institut français, le ministère de la Culture et l’Institut Goethe. The seminar « Exhibiting Polyphony » of the German Center for Art History Paris is taking place in association with Polyphone since March 2021.