First & First presents: Playing the Building

• Aria
  105 North First Street , Minneapolis, MN 55401 | Get Directions
• Phone: (612) 460-1051

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First & First presents Playing the Building, a 17,000-square-foot, interactive, site-specific installation by renowned artist David Byrne. The artist will transform the interior of Aria, formerly the Jeune Lune building, located in the Historic Warehouse District in Minneapolis, MN into a massive sound sculpture that all visitors are invited to sit and “play.”

With successful runs in Stockholm, New York, and London, Playing the Building marks the first time Aria will host an art installation, which will be accessible to the general public. The project will consist of a retrofitted antique organ, placed in the center of the building's cavernous first floor gallery, that will control a series of devices attached to its structural features. Everything from metal beams, plumbing, electrical conduits, and heating and water pipes will vibrate, strike, and create unique harmonics and finely tuned sounds. The space will be open daily and everyone will be invited to sit at the organ, tap on the keys, and create a unique array of sounds that travel through the space.

“David is most widely known as a musician, but he is an extraordinary writer, visual artist, and director who resists categorization, plays around with grey zones, and favors a life of broad creativity,” says Peter Remes, Founder of Aria. “Playing the Building is deceptive in its simplicity; it's layered with rich meaning relating to human nature, our contemporary relationship to place and sound, and considerations of shifts in culture at large.”