Sound installation at Collegium Hungaricum Berlin in commemoration of "Kristallnacht" on November 9th, 1938 at Collegium Hungaricum Berlin (2008)
1st prize of the international sound art competition
Based on the belief that the persecution of the Jews and the
Holocaust cannot be represented in narrative accounts, and that an atmospheric
or illustrative approach to the pogrom of November 9th 1938 results in the
trivialization of this genocide and injures the dignity of its victims, we have
created a sound installation which conceptually focuses on empty space, that the
extermination of Jews and other groups has left in the life of European
nations.
Day/Interior
The sound installation in the interior of the
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin consists of two parts: one two-channel installation
in the south window of the stairway of the ground floor and a six-channel
installation directly on the stairs on the first, second, and third floors.
Through the south window located directly at the entrance on the first floor
there is a view onto Dorotheenstraße. The street noises can be heard through
loudspeakers. From this sound material, one to three small frequency
sound-bands are filtered out. An acoustic empty space is produced. This alludes
to the evictions and attrition of the Holocaust. The frequency bands that are
filtered out live from the street, change over time. They come from an
extremely slowed-down counterpoint study derived from a piece written by Arnold
Schönberg in exile in California on November 10th, 1938, the so-called "Kristallnachtfuge".
In the staircase area on the other hand, the frequency bands play back the
sounds from Dorotheenstraße which had been filtered out. In this way, the first
voices can be heard on the first floor, the second on the second floor, and the
third on the third floor. The filters in this section of the installation are
as carefully selected as those at the south window on the first floor, so that
these disembodied voices sound like sinus-tones. The location of these voices
cannot be traced. In relation to the ongoing street sounds, these become articulated
and modulate in volume. The transitions and interactions between the three
voices/levels are noticed by the visitor while they move through the stairway.
Night/Exterior
Outside we create empty space in a visual
way. On the levels of the second and third floors on the south façade of the
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin there is a large panoramic window which can be used
as a video screen via a reverse projection. Here a live video signal will be
transmitted, which comes from a camera, which is directed out of a window on
the north face of the building, towards a row of houses on Bauhofstrasse. This
produces a visual opening on the south façade, which enables the viewer to look
through and into the building.
leicht verändert im Katalog, CHB Berlin 2008
© Volker Straebel kein Abdruck ohne schriftliche Genehmigung des Autors / no reprint without author's written permission
Through the south window located directly at the entrance on the first floor
there is a view onto Dorotheenstraße. The street noises can be heard through
loudspeakers. From this sound material, one to three small frequency
sound-bands are filtered out. An acoustic empty space is produced. This alludes
to the evictions and attrition of the Holocaust. The frequency bands that are
filtered out live from the street, change over time. They come from an
extremely slowed-down counterpoint study derived from a piece written by Arnold
Schönberg in exile in California on November 10th, 1938, the so-called "Kristallnachtfuge".