In December 2023, Le Bicolore/The Danish Embassy in Paris, VisitDenmark and Art Music Denmark announced an Open Call for a sound art piece for the Danish pavilion at the Olympics. The selected piece was the audiovisual work “Mirage” by the Danish-Taiwanese percussionist and composer Ying-Hsueh Chen.

The number and quality of applications far exceeded what the selection committee, which consisted of representatives from the embassy, VisitDenmark, and Art Music Denmark’s independent music professional committee, had dared to hope for, despite high expectations. The field featured a multitude of both pure and cross-aesthetic sound artworks, which, besides undeniable aesthetic qualities, also clearly and directly addressed social and climate issues in their own ways; some very explicitly, others with a more open and interpretive form of expression. The impressive field motivated the embassy, in close dialogue with Art Music Denmark, to present a small series of other works that had been received at the time.

About the exhibition

This exhibition, titled Planetary Sounds, brings together four of the works that made a particularly strong impression on the Danish Embassy in Paris. In addition to “Mirage,” presented in its entirety, the exhibition also includes the works “Bølger” (2014) by Mads Emil Dreyer, “VITI” (2021) by Anna Katrin Ø. Egilstrøð, and “As You Were” (2022) by Frederik Valentin, Sebastian Kloborg, Mikkel Borrisholt Grevsen and a production team. Together, these four works provide a strong insight into the diverse scenes of sound art and audiovisual art in Denmark, which can be quiet, minimalist and abstract, but also more outgoing and focused on narrativity through the incorporation of other art forms, such as performance and dance. In each their own ways, they address the conditions of our present age with a focus on social and cultural upheavals and our relationship with nature.

The works were selected by the director of the Danish Embassy in Paris, Catherine Lefebvre, who has been in consultative dialogue with Art Music Denmark’s project manager and communications manager Alexander Julin Mortensen about the development of the project and the works curated by her.

The exhibition is available on Le Bicolore’s website from July 20 to August 11, 2024. Read more about the exhibition here.