Robert Lambermont
2010
The Dommel in Pelt looks like a mere scribble when you look at a map of the area. If you have a closer look though on the bank of the river and listen, you realize that it is the sum of a great number of events. The stream consists of millions of splashing waves, rolling pebbles, floating leaves, nibbling fish. In turn they are made up of molecules and atoms, floating in an endless restless stream.
Robert Lambermont constructed Oor van Noach (Noah’s Ear) to make the Dommel’s identity audible. The sound installation is made up of a wooden floating barge. It is connected to a bent arm that ends on the bank in a trumpet form. The higher the water, the deeper Oor van Noach bends. Just as the needle follows the groove in a record the impressive creation explores the streaming water. The forces of the fickle Dommel on the work are transformed into sounds that leave the object at the trumpet on the riverbank. Works like Oor van Noach are Robert Lambermont’s path on the search of a universal language to express his wonder for things in relation to the passing of time. Seemingly slow processes, like the turn of the seasons; in relation to incidental events, like the falling of a leaf, are the central theme of the installation.
Robert Lambermont (°1976 - NL) is both a pianist and a visual artist. He graduated at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 1999. He was a piano student of Hélène Hammerstein’s and Paul Huijts’. He was accompanied as a pianist by Arielle Vernède, Simeon ten Holt and Willem Jeths. It was during his studies at the Rietveld Academy that Lambermont got interested in Simeon ten Holt’s music, especially in the dance worthy and obsessive character of the music. Lambertmont connected his spatial moving objects to music. Many of his piano recitals at the Academy ended in confronting his audience with his sculptures and installations. The reactions from the people in the room proved to be a valuable source for new projects.
After his studies Robert Lambermont formed a piano quartet that specialized in performing Simeon ten Holt’s music for two and four pianos. They played in Music Centre Vredenburg and in Ijsbreker in Amsterdam, amongst other venues. In 2002 Lambermont and Bastiaan Brink formed a new quartet, the Bergen Quartet. Simeon ten Holt became a close friend, who asked Bergen Quartet several times to perform his music.
The process of creation of Robert Lambertmont’s designs is an organic and intuitive journey. He collects forms and movements that strike his attention in buildings and landscapes, but also in less material matters like conversations or music. He then conducts a poetic selection of these impressions. The next step is to sketch forms that will be used for different types of movement. When he draws a conclusion on the type of (often repetative) movement the object gradually takes form. In his combined exhibitions and piano concerts Lambertmont explains the poetic nature of the objects. His sculptures can be admired in several museums and collections in The Netherlands, amongst others Museum Het Domein in Sittard and the Rijkscollectie (Zuiderzeemuseum Enkhuizen). He received several grants from the Fund for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture for his work as a visual artist and musician.