Disruptions in D Minor
Sound Installation
Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin
- 2024
Disruptions in D Minor is a two-channel sound installation created for the L-shaped corridor of Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin, in the exhibition Radiant Opacity. The installation comprises two 20-minute audio tracks with 10-minute intervals.
The sound is composed, through one of the two channels, of field recordings of explosions and tractor horns from the mass agricultural strikes that took place outside of the EU summit in Brussels in January 2024. The other channel uses sections of a recording of Ode to Joy from the fourth and final movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; the official anthem of the EU. Each audio source is slowed down by a rate of approximately 12,000% so that seconds and milliseconds of sound become minutes. Through this expansion of time, the principal disruptive quality of the explosions and horns is subverted. Conversely, the brief orchestral and choral sequences from Ode to Joy – music adopted by the EU to convey ‘the ideals of freedom, peace and solidarity’ – are drawn-out and unsettling. As such, the two meet tonally, albeit uncomfortably, somewhere in the middle.
Text on shop receipt paper, which wraps around the corner of the corridor wall and at the apex of the direction of amplified sound from the two speakers, reads 'Oh friends, not these tones!'. It is an English translation of the first sung part of Ode to Joy, from the original German text: O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
Installation:
- Dimensions (HxWxD): N/A
- Materials: Speakers, Subwoofer, Stands, Mixer, Equaliser, Cables, Text on Paper