LONDON.- New York-based artists Ei Arakawa and Sergei Tcherepnin, and Tbilisi-based artist Gela Patashuri are collaborating on a human-size ‘speaker’ structure that will be assembled in The Showroom’s exhibition space. This ‘sound room’ will function both as a loudspeaker and a music studio, housing objects and materials ready for an ensemble to play a specific score. The ensemble will comprise Showroom staff and members of the gallery’s local community, performing on 3, 7, 11 and 14th September.

Be a speaker. So be it... evolved out of work that the group have been doing towards the establishment of a new contemporary art centre in Tbilisi. Plans for this are so far imaginary, inspiring the group to devise a music festival in 2009 and develop the project Hurt Locker Instruments at Casco, Utrecht, in 2010, as part of the project Circular Facts. The installation at The Showroom will incorporate 3D drawings and a slide show of plans for the Tbilisi Center for Contemporary Art, both based on a drawing by Gela Patashuri.

Ei Arakawa was born in 1977 in Japan, Sergei Tcherepnin in 1981 in the USA, and Gela Patashuri in Georgia in 1973. They have been working collaboratively since 2008 on projects at Casco, Utrecht (2010), New Jerseyy, Basel (2009) and in Tbilisi (2008, 2009). Arakawa’s solo projects include Galerie Neu, Berlin (2010), Kunsthalle Zurich and Sculpture Center New York (both 2009); Tcherepnin has performed his musical improvisations in numerous New York venues and his compositions are performed internationally; Patashuri has curated and participated in group exhibitions in Georgia, most recently in Shindisi.

Be a speaker. So be it... is supported by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Japan Foundation, and has been commissioned in the framework of Circular Facts, a cooperative circuit for itinerant research and projects by artists initiated by Casco, Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht, Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp, and The Showroom in collaboration with Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen and Electric Palm Tree; financially supported by the European Commission. The project will travel to France, to Betonsalon in Paris and CAC Bretigny. The Showroom is supported by Arts Council England and members of the gallery’s Supporters Scheme.