NATTEFÆRD (NIGHT JOURNEY) - STRUER TRACKS 2019
18 channel sound installation in a DSB (Danish State Railways) couchette, which once drove through the night back and forth from Struer to Copenhagen in the period between 1987 and 1997. The work examines the state between being awake and asleep, also called hypnagogia, when letters on a page dance and meanings twist in new directions.

”Distance is an imaginary quantity in the couchette, as well as in slumber, dreams move closer to a surface and the notion of places far away gets under the skin, raising up into the compartment of memories and through to the palpable world of the senses. The next station is a stop some place on the globe. Copenhagen, Kumamoto, Krakow… The platform plays as a starting point, and the conductor’s blown whistle signals as an opportunity, a kick off. Slow time, three days at a window, moving scenery, streams of thought… Passport, Visa, language, escape, future, hope…. “ from the exhibition Struer Tracks 2019.

Video above: Gotfat Production
Photo above: Mikkel Høgh Kalpal

”Nattefærd (Night Journey) reminds us of the tiny signals of the night, the sounds we remember or miss: the sound of time, which once glided slowly through the small bedroom of the train” From Seismograf, DK.

NATTEFÆRD (NIGHT JOURNEY) was commissioned by STRUER TRACKS 2019.
Curated by: Christian Skovbjerg Jensen
Technical team: Gert Yde Jacobsen, Henrik Möller, Andrea U. Toft
Voice, train information on the distance Struer - Copenhagen: Gert Poulsen
Recordings of train information in multiple languages: Jacob Kreutzfelt, Peter Meanwell, Andrea U. Toft, Michel Mutambayi, Maia Urstad
Special thanks to: Jacob Kreutzberg, Kaj Rasmussen and the staff at Struer Railway Museum, Nicholay and Michelle, Gert Poulsen, Amanda Appel, Christian Skjødt, and everyone at Struer Tracks, Eva Rowson, Sissel Lillebostad, Lars Ove Toft and BEK – Bergen Center for Elektronisk Kunst.

More information: https://struertracks.dk/

Press extract:
SEISMOGRAF, DK: “However, it is at Struer Harbor that one finds the best works of the biennale. Norwegian artist Maia Urstad examines the state between being awake and asleep, also called hypnagogia. The work was installed in a DSB night train wagon, which went en route between Struer and Copenhagen in the period 1987-97. As you walk around in the train wagon, and heading into the passenger compartments, the sounds of moving goods and messages from conductors in Russian and Chinese are heard. It is the sound of the unknown, but it is also an audible ride back to the time when you spent 'slow time' in the night train; being awakened by a person or a mechanical clock, or just the sound of a busy railway station - not by the light of a vibrating cell phone. Nattefærd (Night Journey) reminds us of the tiny signals of the night, the sounds we remember or miss: the sound of time, which once glided slowly through the small bedroom of the train”
Original text in Danish, and the entire article about Struer Tracks 2019 can be found HERE