ELEVATIONS - La Biennale di Venezia 2025

ELEVATIONS - An installation by Maxime Denuc in collaboration with Kris Verdonck/A Two Dogs Company

Dates: 11.10 - 25.10
Location: © La Biennale di Venezia 2025

Elevations is a sound installation inspired by dub techno, a musical style that combines minimal techno with Jamaican dub, from which it borrows its extensive use of delays. The installation consists of a three-part automated organ made by Decap Herentals, with composition by Denuc and light and scenography by Kris Verdonck. During his residency at ATDC, the collaboration that Kris Verdonck had already established with Decap (e.g., for the development of the DEAD BRASS BAND in H, an incident, and BRASS) was further expanded for this new installation. 

In Verdonck’s work, these automated instruments form part of his exploration into human absence and machines. Human emotion and the capacity for abstraction perhaps find their strongest expression in music and in the act of playing an instrument. What happens when we also delegate that to robots, AI, machines? BRASS was part of the installation series IN VOID, a set of works reflecting on human absence. Within IN VOID, reference was made to the servante—a small lamp often left as the only light on an empty stage, both to prevent people from falling and to ward off ghosts. This lamp also served as the starting point for the lighting design Verdonck created for ELEVATIONS.Denuc had previously composed new sound for BRASS#2 (as a stand-alone installation, but also as part of the performance route DARK). The selection of Elevations for the Venice Biennale for Music is a fine recognition of the collaboration between Denuc, Verdonck, and A Two Dogs Company.