Laurent Güdel (1984) is a swiss intermedia artist and musician. Listening complexity is the focus of his work, in particular he is interested in the differences found in materiality of sound. The auditory exploration in his works is achieved through collaborative and transdisciplinary practice. His medium and approaches vary depending on the collaborations, which combine the disciplines of typography, anthropology and history. His mediums include installation, videos, live performance, audio or print publications and multi-channel compositions.
He was recently awarded a six-month residency grant in Brussels which allowed for a development of a project that lead him to EMS in Stockholm. While here, he will be examining the evolution and the footprint of the electroacoustic music studios in current musical practices. At the same time, he will be to working on his first full-length solo album, making use of Serge and Buchla synthesizer systems.
Drawing on archival materials and found artifacts his projects create sonic and visual maps through a combination of design, recording, amplification, and electronic synthesis. He strives for a tension and contrast by combining raw sources with a minimal aesthetic and plays with the confusion between contexts, media, and the constant feedback between recording and listening.
Over the past couple of years, he collaborated extensively with an artist, an anthropologist, and a beekeeper Aladin Borioli. Their project “Hiss” - a film without images about the interspecies relations between bees and humans - was presented at the Festival de la Cité in Lausanne, CTM Festival in Berlin, Anthropologies Numériques in Paris, and Le 18 in Marrakesh.
In addition, he took part in Documenta14, was exhibited at the Nidwaldner Kunstmuseum, and was included at the 2018 Shenzhen biennale of animation. In 2018, he was also commissioned by the Lausanne Underground Film Festival to produce a film about the interwar history of former anarchists in Geneva.
When not abroad, Laurent organizes experimental, DIY music concerts in the city of Biel/Bienne where he is usually based.