Mari Kretz, born 1966 in Stockholm.

Works and lives in Stockholm, Sweden.

First sound art work: “I can hear your heart beat”, 1996

Mari Kretz is an artist working with sound installations, site specific works and video works at the intersection of audio and visual art. She finds inspiration from research and scientific studies witch she transforms into visual and acoustic experiences.

Her latest works have mainly been sound- video and super-8 installations as well as sound objects. She is investigating acoustic phenomena from space working with sound-files that are transformed from radio waves by the INSPIRE project/NASA.

She used low frequency radio waves, as a main source for the sound installation “Debris”, shown in 2003 at Tyresö Konsthall. The piece consists of 14 speakers hanging in thin wires in two parallel circles separated by a wall, where the circles create an acoustic room.

From a distance, all that you hear is a slight whistling. When you stand inside the circles, you gradually get the whole effect of the sounds from space which is quite, meditative and hypnotic.

Parts of her works let us see things in other ways e.g. a different sound at an unexpected place. Or through more quite and poetic works, as one of her earliest work “Grandma’s Grove”, that was shown at Umedalen Sculpture Park 1996. The tinny sound from a rotating Angel Chimes, placed on an iron bar at eye-level. Elements of surprise, the unexpected sound and object, that are so associated to Christmas, were placed in the middle of a tiny grove in the summer.

Mari Kretz is initiator to different collaborative projects as e.g. LARM, “a window for you” and the Detective Bureau Kretz & Johansen. She has done several groups - and solo shows. She is educated at Umeå Academy of Arts.

Links

www.marikretz.se

www.fylkingen.se