Listening with your hands: Obsolete Media, Ephemeral Messages - Museu de la Música de BarcelonaExhibitions
05/12/2023 - 12/10/2023

From wax cylinders to vinyl records and magnetic tapes, these tangible objects embody what seems intangible: ideals, feelings, thoughts and emotions that are captured in sound waves. The exhibition explores the fragility and durability of these media, as well as their historical and conceptual impact. It also presents the artistic and subversive uses of these formats and how they have influenced music making and the listening experience in the second half of the 20th century and beyond. A selection of objects and documents unveils three musical works that reinterpret the ephemeral, finite and material qualities of analog media. The exhibition raises questions about what is kept and what is lost in the recording of music, how "memory loss" is managed, and how these modern archaeological objects are interpreted and archived in a post-industrial context of mass production and recycling.