GARY HILL

WALL PIECE & ACCORDIONS

23.03.24

For the second edition of Paella Fest at Art & Design District, conceptual artist Gary Hill exhibited a dual video installation at industrial space 24: Wall Piece (2000) at the back and Accordions (2001) at the front.

In Wall Piece, Hill’s own body becomes both the subject and the medium. In a pitch-dark space, he hurls himself against a wall, uttering a single word with each impact, as a strobe light captures the exact moment of contact. Meanwhile, a floor-level light also flashes at a rate of approximately 60 cycles per minute. These flashes sometimes sync with the recorded impacts, sometimes presage or echo them, and occasionally, when perfectly aligned, obliterate the image entirely, creating a disorienting and mesmerizing effect.

Accordions (The Belsunce Recordings, July 2001) transports viewers to the small Algerian neighborhood of Belsunce in Marseille. This installation offers a vibrant, living portrait of the community’s daily life. This work features five non-synchronized video projections with accompanying sound, interspersed with segments of black and silence, producing a rhythmic, pulsating series of images and sounds. As the camera zooms in on certain individuals, the scenes are interrupted by increasing segments of black, slowing the action to a near-photographic stillness. When the camera zooms out, the imagery resumes its original pace. The title Accordions aptly describes this telescoping manipulation of time, transforming everyday moments into a dynamic, contextualized experience.