Ursula Nistrup presents an informal artists’ talk on her art practice in connection to her recent publication Eavesdropping, published by Cura Books.

Over the past decade, Nistrup has worked in a range of different media with a distinct focus on sound, attempting to turn its immaterial qualities into a perceptible shape through images, language and architecture. Her work Eavesdropping considers how the ‘untranslatable’ emotional and aesthetic information of music, noise and sound can be rendered into something that occupies space, where the publication itself becomes a retelling of an aural experience.

Inserted between the pages of the book, like pauses in a composition, are four sheets of handmade paper. Each has a specific weight and surface, and each generates a distinctive tone and sound when shaken. Together they comprise a new work, Tonepaper, which, as a musical instrument, represents the shape and space of a sound.

At Printed Matter, Nistrup will discuss the process of composing this work, as well as her previous staging of the piece at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen. For that performance she invited musicians to play a continuation of each of the 4 tones over the recorded samples of paper, creating an audible collage.

Edited by Cecilia Canziani, the book includes texts and drawings by Cecilia Canziani, Daniela Cascella, Cevdet Erek, and Ursula Andkjaer Olsen.

Michela Tornielli di Crestvolant was the editorial coordinator and the Graphic Design was undertaken by Andrea Baccin.
Limited edition of 500 copies.

The book is published by CURA Books, Rome. It is printed in an edition of 500, with 80 color pages, and measures 17 x 24 cm.


Ursula Nistrup is currently a resident at Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn.