allora / calzadilla

Reference monograph

Jennifer Allora (*1974, USA) and Guillermo Calzadilla (*1971, Cuba) live in Puerto Rico and have worked together since 1995. The production and use of sound is central to all their work. In a recent series of installations documented in this book they explore the continuum between noise and its structuring through music, a potentially rich tool through which cultural, social, and political relationships can be both gauged and challenged. Many of these recent works are the outcome of the artists’ investigations into how power, militarism, and war are encoded into sound. They have developed a multifaceted oeuvre consisting of installations, videos, performances, social interactions, works in public space, photos, and collages. Their practice is characterized by a sense of playfulness, humour, and social involvement, and focuses on local situations and concrete materials and forms, while providing a platform to hear resonances within a larger global context at the same time.

In this book the artists do not so much theorize about music as through it. The design and sequencing between reproductions of works and reference images were conceived in close collaboration with them.

Published with Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Serpentine Gallery, London; and the Renaissance Society, Chicago.