Oliver Beer – Resonance Project: The Cave, 2024

Since 2007, composer and multidisciplinary artist Oliver Beer has explored acoustic resonance through The Resonance Project. This series integrates voice, body, and architecture in compositions designed to reveal and amplify the natural resonant frequencies of diverse locations, from a hammam in Istanbul to the Centre Pompidou’s tubular walkways.

Oliver Beer was granted exceptional access to the Palaeolithic caves of the Dordogne, known for some of humanity’s earliest artworks, where he discovered a connection between the cave paintings and the site’s acoustics. Composed in and for the Font-deGaume cave, Resonance Project: The Cave features eight performers — Jean-Christophe Brizard, eee gee, Mélissa Laveaux, Mo’Ju, Hamed Sinno, Michiko Takahashi, Rufus Wainwright, and Woodkid — who sing their earliest musical memory. As an immersive experience, the eight-screen video installation invites viewers to experience the cave’s unique acoustic environment and the musical heritage that spans time and cultures. In a tunnel beneath the exhibition space, Beer presents his Resonance Paintings, created by moving pigment with sound waves, without any direct contact with the canvas. These paintings, shaped by the vibrations of the singers’ voices, reveal abstract forms that normally remain invisible and that fill the air in the cave.