Hans Rosenström

A noc była ciemna / And Dark was the Night, 2015

sound installation

open spaces by the Martwa Wisła

 

Ships’ horns are a warning signal, they mark a presence and the reaching of one’s destination. The characteristic, piercing, noise is also a nostalgic looking back, a recalling of community and individual experiences and memories as well as the making of a claim – on a place and on being noticed.

The installation And Dark Was the Night once more brings back to Nowy Port the sound of ships’ horns and corresponding forms of audio communication. The work of Hans Rosenström, located in the vicinity of Zakręt Pięciu Gwizdków (Five Horns’ Corner), tells the story of a particular location, which over the years, made it necessary for ships to sound warning signals; it was there that the warship Schleswig‑Holstein moored in 1939. The wailing of ship’s sirens, their hissing and whistling combine into a narrative, in which the daily reality of the port district makes an equal aural impact with its past. The artist follows the trail of associations, in search of the sounds of stipulated communication between people and entities, traversing physical and psychological boundaries. Changing directions and sound amplitude play with the perception of the listener, who becomes the axis of the installation – as both its audience and its source.

Sound designer: Niclas Kristiansson

Hans Rosenström (b. 1978) – originally from Finland, where he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, he now lives in London. He makes mainly sound installations. The artist is interested in the issue of social relations, exclusion and integration as well as individual and group experience.