Centre Pompidou × West Bund Museum Project I Never Dream Otherwise than Awake: Journeys in Sound

From 26 April to 17 September 2024, the Centre Pompidou × the West Bund Museum Project presents the exhibition I Never Dream Otherwise than Awake: Journeys in Sound where an ensemble of nearly 15 major installation works from the Centre Pompidou’s noteworthy new media collection is showcased alongside selected audiovisual art works and sound sculptures from Chinese artists. The exhibition delves into the expressive potential of sound, particularly its capacity to circulate, to be ubiquitous and to set relationships. This exhibition is one of the highlights of 2024 Croisements 60 Festival organized every year by Institut Français in China. 

Sound has long been a subject of interest in the history of the visual arts, yet its potential as an artistic medium remains largely untapped. As their works grace the exhibition space, artists from diverse eras and regions converge to initiate a dialogue that transcends the confines of geography, time, and space. Among them are esteemed international pioneers in contemporary art including Francis Alÿs, Susan Philipsz, Gary Hill and Bill Fontana, alongside younger generations including Hassan Khan, Anne Le Troter, Yuko Mohri, Naama Tsabar, and Chinese artists active on the global stage, such as Zhou Tao, Liu Chuang, Tao Hui, Samson Young, and many others.  

The exploration of sound is becoming increasingly diversified with the development of technology, positioning itself at the forefront of artistic practice and combining interdisciplinary inquiry to continuously challenge and expand the boundaries of art. This exhibition highlights the renewed fruitfulness of this cross-fertilisation over the last twenty years. While recalling the role of renown pioneers in the field sound research, it showcases the range of practices that are developing today, moving fluidly from concerts to installations, from musical compositions to the development of new visual languages.

Improvisation protocols and collective practices, sampling and collage, feedback and filtering, algorithmic generation, and creation through social networks... Sound and music inspire meaningful gestures that reflect our waving relationship to the world.

I never dream otherwise than awake—the title of one of the works in the exhibition, by Emmanuel Lagarrigue—suggests a subtle line between waking and dreaming, between a lucid perception of the here and now and a semi-conscious state of research, hinting at sensations yet to come.

During the exhibition, Sound Art Live unfolds, featuring Chinese musicians and performers including Wang Changcun, Ye Hui, Yan Jun, Wang Menghan, and Sun Wei. Their performances not only unveil the richness of current sound practices carried out by different generations of artists in China, but also engage in a dialogue with the diversity of artworks exhibited, providing an opportunity to explore a wide range of experimental practices and musical genres: ambient, field recordings, electronic music, and noise.