Lee Ranaldo & Leah Singer: Contre Jour

A concert accompanying the exhibition "Bludný kámen: Malá domů".

In the middle of the concert space, an electric guitar hangs suspended on a rope. Lee Ranaldo - guitarist, composer, visual artist and co-founder of Sonic Youth - brings it to life with a bow, strikes, and feedback, letting it swing freely through the space like a sonic pendulum. Its movement meets projections by Leah Singer, experimental filmmaker, photographer and Ranaldo's life and artistic partner. The musician's figure and the instrument's body catch light, cast shadows, and enter directly into the projected image - creating an improvised audiovisual performance connecting movement, light and sound.

Lee Ranaldo and Leah Singer have collaborated since 1991, developing performances that combine musical and sonic improvisation with experimental film projected on 16mm projectors. Ranaldo began performing with the so-called suspended guitar in the late 2000s, when he started exploring more deeply the resonant properties of a guitar separated from the player's body. In the Contre Jour project, the musician and instrument enter into prepared image sequences by Leah Singer, and their play of shadows on the projection screen references the earliest forms of cinema. The guitar sounds together with the film's soundtrack create a connection that neither illustrates the image nor synchronizes with it, but responds to it and sets it in motion. The result is neither a concert accompanied by film nor a projection with musical underscore, but a live composition based on improvisation, movement, and the contrasts of light and shadow, negativity and positivity, silence and noise.

Lee Ranaldo co-founded Sonic Youth in 1981 and since the early 1980s has been a prominent figure in the New York music and art scene - working as a composer, performer, producer, visual artist, and also engaging with literature and poetry. Leah Singer is a Canadian multimedia artist living in New York, known for experimental films and live video projections that she combines with musical performances, often in collaboration with her husband Lee Ranaldo. She works as a photographer and graphic designer.