Where Is Echo? | Robert Gogol

Where Is Echo? | Robert Gogol

Curators’LAB Gallery UAP, 12 Nowowiejskiego Str.
Opening: 22.09.2025
Exhibition dates: 22.09 – 3.10.2025
Curator: Tomasz Misiak

Where Is Echo?

In Greek mythology, Echo is portrayed as a young, beautiful nymph who falls hopelessly in love with Narcissus. Narcissus rejects her affections, surrendering completely to the allure of his own reflection. After his death, the gods turn Narcissus into a flower, while the heartbroken Echo gradually fades away until only her voice remains – a voice condemned to eternal wandering, endlessly repeating itself. Dissolving into echo – as an acoustic phenomenon – Echo loses her name and disappears into a world governed by time.

The story of Echo raises many questions that remain relevant today:
How do acoustic repetitions and reflections affect us? What do we hear when we listen to our own voice? How are sounds and their entangled meanings transformed when caught up in the circulation of other, often incidental, sounds – as well as specific spaces and media? How do we cope with noise? In the overwhelming flood of contemporary stimuli, how can we find space for our own expression? How can we find Echo within the echo?

Robert Gogol’s surround sound installation is an attempt to locate Echo within the acoustic phenomena of the contemporary world. “Where is Echo?” is the fundamental question explored by the artist, for whom sound plays a vital role in artistic practice. Time delays created through electronically programmed tools generate seemingly displaced sound sources. The sound transmitted through speakers loses its original characteristics: it becomes scattered, multiplied, distorted. At the same time, new structures emerge, where fragments of unexpected meaning may begin to appear. The question returns: Can Echo emerge from echo?

The invisible evolutions of spectral-temporal sound structures also invite us to sharpen our hearing and create the distance necessary for critical listening. It is no longer only about what we hear, but also how. How can we listen in order to distinguish Echo from echo? After leaving the gallery, this question may linger – twice as loud.

Tomasz Misiak

Robert Gogol: PhD candidate at the Department of Acoustics, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. His research focuses on the influence of spectral-temporal sound structure on the perception of speech and music. He combines scientific investigation with engineering and artistic practice.
www.robertgogol.pl