Hermes’ Ear

Conception of the exhibition was inspired by a controversial mythological construct of ancient God of fertility, tricky messenger of the Olympian Gods, who, in spite of the fact that he invented the first musical instruments, did not become the official God of music.

On the other hand, it is him, the inventor of the language, with whom the responsibility for the logocentrism, hermeneutics or deconstruction rests. Moreover, he was the first known intermediator; he provided the textual metabolism between the profane and sacral sphere, between night and day, between the hidden and revealed, between presented and represented, between consciousness and subconsciousness. Therefore he seems to be the perfect embodiment of the thesis What else could happen? having fulfilled it consistently in the more conservative conditions compared to the liberalism of our post-modern situation. Hermes was simply Different and he was predetermined to this Oddness by his trickster identity. He represented the alternative to any convention and he consistently heeded that no alternative should resort to convention. So, let us open up, together with the artists-intermediators at this exhibition, the flexible fan of the epithets that characterize the unstable and ungraspable identity of Hermes, let us prick up our lazy ears and listen to the images and processes!
Exhibiting artist are all acknowledged inter-media professionals who demonstrate their ideas about the visualization of sound, music and hearing in different media.

Exhibition is complemented by a multimedia collection borrowed from the legendary Rosenberg Museum in Violín, Slovakia adding to the audiovisual culture of our post-modern age.

Exhibiting artist: Marc Behrens | Stephen Cochrane | Alvin Curran | Jennifer DeFelice | Martin Dickinger | Rudolf Fila | Sándor Győrffy | Franz Hautzinger | Annegret Heinl | HEyeRMEarS | Svetozár Ilavský | Evgeny Irshai | Hans W. Koch | Sándor Krizbai | Emma O’bong | Morgan O’Hara | Paul Panhuysen | Ben Patterson | Keith Rowe | Stelarc | Jan Steklík | Václav Stratil | Miloš Štofko | The Rosenberg Museum
Concept, curator and producer: Jozef Cseres (SK)