Shows

The Quiet Volume

Ant Hampton & Tim Etchels | Great Britain/Germany

Start Date: 28-06-2022 - 12:00 (11:00 CET)
End Date: 28-06-2022 - 14:00 (13:00 CET)Start Date: 29-06-2022 - 12:00 (11:00 CET)
End Date: 29-06-2022 - 14:00 (13:00 CET)Start Date: 30-06-2022 - 12:00 (11:00 CET)
End Date: 30-06-2022 - 14:00 (13:00 CET)Start Date: 01-07-2022 - 12:00 (11:00 CET)
End Date: 01-07-2022 - 14:00 (13:00 CET)Start Date: 04-07-2022 - 17:00 (16:00 CET)
End Date: 04-07-2022 - 19:00 (18:00 CET)Start Date: 05-07-2022 - 12:00 (11:00 CET)
End Date: 05-07-2022 - 14:00 (13:00 CET)Start Date: 06-07-2022 - 12:00 (11:00 CET)
End Date: 06-07-2022 - 14:00 (13:00 CET)Start Date: 07-07-2022 - 12:00 (11:00 CET)
End Date: 07-07-2022 - 14:00 (13:00 CET)Start Date: 08-07-2022 - 12:00 (11:00 CET)
End Date: 08-07-2022 - 14:00 (13:00 CET)Start Date: 11-07-2022 - 17:00 (16:00 CET)
End Date: 11-07-2022 - 19:00 (18:00 CET)Start Date: 12-07-2022 - 12:00 (11:00 CET)
End Date: 12-07-2022 - 14:00 (13:00 CET)Start Date: 13-07-2022 - 12:00 (11:00 CET)
End Date: 13-07-2022 - 14:00 (13:00 CET)

Central Library, Μunicipality of Thessaloniki
28, 29, 30 June and 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13 July, 12:00-14:00
4, 11 July, 17:00-19:00

The Quiet Volume
by Αnt Hampton and Tim Etchells

The Quiet Volume is a whispered, self-generated and 'automatic' performance (Autoteatro) for two at a time, exploiting the particular tension common to any library worldwide; a combination of silence and concentration within which different peoples' experiences of reading unfold.

Two audience members / participants sit side-by-side. Taking cues from words both written and whispered they find themselves burrowing an unlikely path through a pile of books. The piece exposes the strange magic at the heart of the reading experience, allowing aspects of it we think of as deeply internal to lean out into the surrounding space, and to leak from one reader's sphere into another's.

The Greek version of The Quiet Volume was commissioned by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), where it was first staged between October 2019 and January 2020 with the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

Duration: 60'
Languages: English, Greek.

The Quiet Volume
by Αnt Hampton and Tim Etchells

Direction: Ant Hampton
Sound design and edit: Ant Hampton
Binaural recordings: TiTo Toblerone
Additional sounds: Sam Britton and Lothar Ohlmeier
Production management: Katja Timmerberg

English version:
Voices
First voice: Ant Hampton
Child’s voice: Seth Etchells
Third voice: Jenny Naden

Greek version:
Translation: Giannis Vogiatzis

Voices
First voice: Giorgos Kritharas
Child’s voice: Panagiotis Lekkas
Third voice: Aliki Alexandraki

Original versions in English and German, plus Spanish, Polish and Dutch versions commissioned and produced by Ciudades Paralelas, an itinerant yet ‘site specific’ performance festival curated by Stefan Kaegi and Lola Arias.
In coproduction with Vooruit Arts Centre, Belgium

Ant Hampton
Ant Hampton is a British artist and performance maker based in Germany. His performance works are diverse in content and tone, yet consistently explore the tension between fixed formal or structural elements and what has to be lived and negotiated in the moment. For over 20 years he has explored a strategy of guiding peοple through unrehearsed performance situations. This developed to include the audience themselves - a strand of work that became known as Autoteatro, usually involving small-scale and intimate formats, sometimes site-specific eg in cafes for Etiquette, or library reading-rooms for The Quiet Volume. He often collaborates with other artists, including Christophe Meierhans, Britt Hatzius, Gert-Jan Stam, Ivana Müller, Anna Rispoli and Rita Pauls. Not to Scale is Ant’s third ‘Autoteatro’ collaboration with Tim Etchells. In more recently years his practice has expanded into a wider investigation of radical trust, risk-taking and leaps of faith, most obviously via his ‘automatic workshop’ The Thing, and his multilingual project with Rita Pauls, Mouth Piece which brings him back to Thessaloniki in 2023.

Tim Etchells
Tim Etchells is an artist and a writer based in the UK whose work shifts between performance, visual art and fiction. He has worked in a wide variety of contexts, notably as the leader of the world-renowned Sheffield-based performance group Forced Entertainment. Exhibiting and presenting work in significant institutions all over the world, he is currently Professor of Performance & Writing at Lancaster University. Etchells’ work has been shown recently at Tate Modern, Cubitt, Hayward Gallery and Bloomberg SPACE in London, at Turner Contemporary, The Grundy and Compton Verney in the UK, at Witte de With, Rotterdam, and MUHKA (Antwerp).