PITTSBURGH, PA.- Mattress Factory announces Grounded Frictions, a new exhibition by Barcelona-based sound and visual artist Marc Vilanova.
Vilanova’s practice engages with listening as an embodied act – a mode of perceiving phenomena that unfold around the boundaries of human perception. Rather than composing sound, his large-scale installations materialize imperceptible sonic forces into other sensory realms, offering new ways of attuning to the world.
Grounded Frictions expands this inquiry by investigating the acoustic signals found deep within the earth, with special attention to the infrasounds: vibrations between 0.1-20 Hz that fall below the threshold of human hearing yet are still sensed by the body. Using geophones, scientific instruments that detect these low frequencies in the earth, Vilanova captured the sounds of the subterranean environments near active gas wells in Western Pennsylvania and incorporated them throughout the works.
Anchoring Grounded Frictions is an array of speakers attempting to reproduce these recordings. While the sound waves from the speakers are unable to generate audible tones, the vibrations cause movement via attached luminescent fiber optic strings, creating a flickering choreography of light and motion. The installation invites visitors to slow down, sit, or lie in the space, and tune in to the vibrational forces that move through us–even when we cannot hear them. In a subtle nod to the region’s industrial past, two additional works explore the material transformation of infrasounds on to glass and steel.
By repurposing scientific instruments, Vilanova also reflects on the potential that emerges in the tensions between artistic and scientific ways of knowing. Grounded Frictions opens a space where disciplines, epistemologies, and communities converge, inviting us to consider how voices on the edge of perception shape our responses to ecological change and the planetary futures we imagine.
“I want to pose questions, but I don’t have the answers to them. That’s for scientists or for environmentalists. The experience of my work is very sensual, not just something to see and read the wall text and then go to the next thing. You perceive the piece with your body, and you can connect with it even if you don’t read anything on the wall.” - Marc Vilanova for TABLE Magazine
Marc Vilanova (Capellades, 1991) is a sound and visual artist whose work explores the convergence of art, science, nature, and technology. Grounded in expanded sculpture, he aims to foster active listening to voices often ignored or silenced by the anthropocentric paradigm. His creative approach embraces an openness to the world, creating spaces for listening and reflection that challenge the boundaries of sensory knowledge while granting access to perceptual realms beyond immediate human sensitivity. Vilanova invites us to experience an imperceptible universe with which we coexist but know little about. He lives and works in Barcelona.
Vilanova has participated in numerous exhibitions and presentations at cultural institutions, museums, festivals, and international biennials. Recent highlights include BIENALSUR (Buenos Aires, Argentina), the Saudi Museum of Contemporary Art (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia), the Science Gallery (Melbourne, Australia), l’Auditori de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain), FILE (São Paulo, Brazil), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), and Tokyo Wonder Site (Tokyo, Japan). He has received various grants, awards, and residencies, including the Headlands Center for the Arts Fellowship, San Francisco (2022), the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art Fellowship, Omaha (2019), the KARA Prize, Tehran (2018), and the Tokyo Experimental Festival Promotion Prize (2016).
