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You are here: Home / LACE / 2010-2014 / Staalplaat Soundsystem

Staalplaat Soundsystem

In February 2012, LACE hosted Dutch sound artist collective Staalplaat Soundsystem for a 10-day residency. Using “everyday electronic junk” scavenged from thrift stores and donations, Staalplaat members Geert-Jan Hobijn and Carlo Crovato fashioned “sound machines” that were controllable by the audience via smartphones. This site specific, interactive sound installation then served as the focal point for a participatory sound performance in the LACE gallery.

Throughout their residency, Hobijn and Crovato created and added more machines to an ever-growing installation in LACE’s main gallery space. In the final phase of the residency, they moved the installation to the storefront space, allowing visitors and the general public to conduct an “orchestra” via their mobile phone both inside LACE and outside from the Walk of Fame. Within the current mood of worshipping the latest technology in media art, Staalplaat Soundsystem provides a breath of fresh air, reminding us of the 100-year tradition of noise-making machines in which “mad” inventors and various kinds of artists operating in the margins of the art world meet.

All videos by Amanda Mears.

ABOUT STAALPLAAT SOUNDSYSTEM
Since its inception in 2000, Staalplaat Soundsystem has started creating a multitude of “machine installations” using all manner of consumer electronics, such as a dozen floor polishers (Sweet Sissy and the Ballroom Hiss), and Avantilator, a composition for one hundred electric office fans. At the heart of this work is a low-tech philosophy: to make installations appear simple, revealing rather than concealing how they are made.

Staalplaat Soundsystem has been showing works at several international festivals, museums, galleries and events like Avanto (Helsinki), Sonar (Barcelona), 798 South Gate space (Beijing), DEAF (Rotterdam), Transmediale (Berlin), DOM (Moscow), Ars Electronica (Linz), Todaysart (Den Haag), MOCA Taipei, Museeum Weserburg (Bremen), Townhouse Gallery (Cairo), Steirischer Herbst ( Graz), ZKM (Karlsruhe), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Khoj International Artists (New Dehli), and Auditorium (Rome).

For more, visit www.staalplaat.org.

SUPPORT
This project is supported, in part, by public funds from the Netherlands Cultural Services (New York), in partnership with the Dutch Centre for International Cultural Activities (SICA); Music Center, the Netherlands; Netherlands Theatre Institute; and the Dutch Fund for the Performing Arts. Additional funds have been provided by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Mondriaan Fund.

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Filed Under: 2010-2014, LACE Tagged With: 2012

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On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for this year's Artists’ Film International (AFI'25) at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

This touring film program is collectively curated and presented by 16 international arts organizations and convened by Forma (@formaartsmedia). AFI’25 introduces the work of talented moving image artists to worldwide audiences, and will be live over 300 days, with exhibitions, screenings and public programs hosted across 4 continents.

LACE’s selection for AFI’25 is "Leymusoom Garden: New Sun" (2024) by Heesoo Kwon (@leymusoom). Kwon’s oneiric visual language and unique animation style allow her to create memoryscapes of personal and community liberation. The film rewrites mythical matrilineal histories through utopian and whimsical abstractions of time, space, and memory to ultimately bring forth healing and transformation. 

Admission is free! RSVP at the link in our bio.

Image caption:
Still from Heesoo Kwon, Leymusoom Garden: New Sun, 2024. Courtesy the artist
Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Saturday, July 19, 2–5 PM at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

Curated by Selene Preciado and Andrea Acuña, this film program presents a selection of video works that integrate ancestral knowledge and indigenous storytelling, imagining futures where the past and present connect through the power of ruins and resilience. Followed by a musical performance with multimedia NeoCumbia artist El Keamo (@el_keamo).

Learn more and RSVP at the link in our bio!
We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Cu We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Curator! Meet Semaj Peltier (@horsebreath87) and pom*pom (@__pom____pom__), collaborators in a curatorial collective and experimental film archive organizing community-based events since 2022. For the Emerging Curator Program, Semaj Peltier and Pom Pom curate "No Loneliness Like This," a film and food event showcasing experimental films that traverse the many manifestations of state-sanctioned isolation.

Peltier, a projectionist, archivist and filmmaker, brings a praxis shaped by her studies at the University of Amsterdam’s Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image Masters program, specializing in ephemeral histories shaped by coloniality and otherness. pom*pom, developed by Russell Hartling and Crystal Dawana, is an experimental food collective whose sensory-driven dining experiences intersect with film programming to evoke memory, storytelling, and connection. Together, they build worlds where film and food become tools of resistance—rituals that evoke memory, incite dialogue, and nurture solidarity through shared sensation and subversion. 

This year’s panel included Jheanelle Brown (@jheaneeeeeelle), faculty member at CalArts and Curator of Film at REDCAT; Carrie Chen (@carriechen01), artist, curator, and educator; and Heber Rodriguez (@hebereatschips), Coordinator for the City of Lancaster’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Department in the Arts and Museums Division. 

Read the full press release in our bio!
If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive th If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive the experience, head over to the LACE website to watch a selection of the performances with more to come soon!

“ENDURANCE” presented performance art and interdisciplinary work by elder artists. These artists use their practices to share wisdom, knowledge, and experiences that they have gained throughout their lives. This series is a companion program to LACE’s 2024 performance series, “ABUNDANCE”, both featuring often invisibilized bodies.

This program was held at L.A. Dance Project (@ladanceproject) from May 16–17, 2025.

The online presentation of “ENDURANCE” is supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles (@culture_la). 

Photos by Angel Origgi (@angeloriggi).

Image captions in order:
Barbara T. Smith, OWB, 2025
Ulysses Jenkins and his band “Who Dat!,” Ethnic Cleansing, 2022/2025
Hirokazu Kosaka, Shoot Yourself, 2025
The Dark Bob, Beirut, 1982/2025
Kamau Daáood, Griot notes: Poem in Invisible Ink
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