Haroon Mirza

Haroon Mirza has won international acclaim for installations that test the interplay and friction between sound and light waves and electric current. He devises kinetic sculptures, performances and immersive installations, such as The National Apavillion of Then and Now (2011)—an anechoic chamber with a circle of light that grows brighter in response to increasing drone, and completely dark when there is silence. An advocate of interference (in the sense of electro-acoustic or radio disruption), he creates situations that purposefully cross wires. He describes his role as a composer, manipulating electricity, a live, invisible and volatile phenomenon, to make it dance to a different tune and calling on instruments as varied as household electronics, vinyl and turntables, LEDs, furniture, video footage and existing artworks to behave differently. Processes are left exposed and sounds occupy space in an unruly way, testing codes of conduct and charging the atmosphere. Mirza asks us to reconsider the perceptual distinctions between noise, sound and music, and draws into question the categorization of cultural forms. "All music is organized sound or organized noise," he says. "So as long as you’re organizing acoustic material, it’s just the perception and the context that defines it as music or noise or sound or just a nuisance.”

Haroon Mirza’s recent awards include the Nam June Paik Award 2014, and the Zurich Art Prize 2014. Forthcoming solo exhibitions include the Nam June Paik Centre, Korea, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Mattedero, Madrid, and Ballroom, Marfa, Texas. Recent solo exhibitions include Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich,  site specific exhibition The Light Hours at Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, Paris, IMMA, Dublin, Le Grand Palais, St Nazaire F, and The New Museum, New York. His work was included in the 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, China (2012) and the 54th Venice Biennale (2011), where he was awarded the Silver Lion. Among other awards he has also won the Northern Art Prize in 2011 and the DAIWA Foundation Art Prize in 2012.

Courtesy of Ballroom Marfa