HONG-KAI WANG
 
PROJECTS
A Coney Island of the Ear
Setting Up the Banquet
Pleasure Garden
The Broken Orchestra
Qi Min Organic Restaurant
Duet in the Courtyard
Symphony
Elevator Music
Feedback
Water Meditation
Listening with Dumplings
COLLABORATIONS
 

 

Setting Up the Banquet
2008
Twelve-channel sound installation
In-Presentable, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain
 
In Setting Up the Banquet, speakers replace table settings, a soundscape combining euphony and cacophony replaces an abundant meal, and no invitations are required.

The installation consists of a kaleidoscopic soundscape woven from recordings made at Chinese-operated commercial spaces in Madrid. While there is no Chinatown in Madrid, Chinese business per-meates into every possible corner of the city and integrates with people's everyday life.

Banquet symbolizes communality and sharing. Setting Up the Banquet investigates the vernacular musicality that's invisible but not silent and that's derived from the aforementioned social spaces shared by all communities in Madrid. It uses music and sound to explore a collective cultural expression of a large immigrant community and to create a new social space that is at once familiar and unknown.

Very special thanks to Ramon Mateos, Carlos and More of microFusa in Madrid, Guzman de Yarza Blache, Javier Lozano, Ben Roberts, Lucas Nolla, Javier Nunez Gasco, Xia-Yan Huang, Jonathan Shaughnessy, Chris Mann, Charlie Morrow, Carmen Borgia, Kurt Hoffman, Pei-Fu Chen, Nicholas Elliott, Douglas Henderson and those who kindly help make this project possible.

This project is commissioned by In-Presentable 2008. Photo by Javier Lozano


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