Hans Beckers (born in 1986, Antwerp) considers sound to be a crucial and constant element in his work.
In his performances and installations he aims to find a balance between music, sound art and the visual arts. Most of his sound installations could be seen as self-made instruments, made with all kinds of ‘objets trouvées’. He searches for objects, machines, materials from nature, several devices and household objects with an intriguing sound quality. With these materials he creates new kinds of instruments that bring these objects to life. His performances are a combination of composition and improvisation, where he plays a wide range of materials rhythmically, melodically and harmonically aided by a self-made table instrument that amplifies normally inaudible sounds through a magnetic field. His work mainly focuses on sound, installations, music, audiovisual art and performances, but he also makes drawings, etchings and music scores for theatre and film.
His performances and sound installations have been exhibited and performed in different Festivals and Art houses around the world, such as Bozar Brussels, Muhka Antwerp, Opera De Lille, Concertgebouw Bruges, Konserthus Stavangar, Casa Modernista Sao Paulo, etc.
iii has commissioned a new work for Hans Beckers’ residency, ‘La Floresta’, which explores the focused experience of listening as a means to connect more deeply with ourselves and our environment.
“As I live with my ear to the ground; ‘the act of listening’ is my key to find a deeper touch with reality. While sound is omnipresent, we don’t dwell on it. We rarely observe frequencies and vibrations as a map of our emotional and physical condition. As such its revealing messages radiate straight into the unconscious. I believe the focused act of listening can trigger self-realization and change in our lives. It sharpens our consciousness and creates a higher spatial and social sensitivity towards our environment and other creatures.
I engage in a constant search on how to change the relationship between person and instrument. In this way normal objects and materials that are not considered fit to play music on can in fact become musical instruments.
My sensory experiences in and my relation to nature is the starting point and inspiration for the sound instruments of ‘La Floresta’; in which I explore nature and technology as juxtaposition. How do we experience nature and sound and how do we relate to it in this globalized, technological era?
Music can transform one’s sense of time and space, it can take us into another world. My aim with this work is to bring an audience into a state of deep listening, in a trance-like state, and let them experience sound in its deep differentiations and intensities.”
Hans Beckers will develop La Floresta at iii workspace during the course of 2021 from August 30 – September 13, October 4 – 17, and November 1 – 14. Beckers will perform La Floresta during Proximity Music as part of Rewire festival on September 10-12 and during November Music in ‘s-Hertogenbosch on November 11.
La Floresta is co-produced by iii together with ChampdAction
iii’s residency program is made possible through the support of Creative Industries Fund NL and the Creative Europe program of the European Union. Hans Becker’s residency is also supported by Rewire Festival.
