The exhibition shows instruments – but special ones!

The visual arts have utilised and continue to utilise a wide variety of materials, including those not traditionally associated with artistic production. From the second half of the 20th century onwards, this increasingly included immaterial or non-static elements such as light, radio waves, social interaction, dance and sound.

The exhibition Klangkörper is dedicated to the question of how the latter is brought into the exhibition space in the form of (musical) tones and melodies. However, the focus is not primarily on the link between music and visual art, but on the body of sound itself. Just as with light or movement, music also requires a physical resonance chamber, regardless of whether it is the human body that produces sounds by clapping or tapping, or complex electrical machines that produce sound via control mechanisms.

In comparison to music theory and music history, in which an instrument is primarily analysed in terms of how good or suitable it is, or how its timbre fits into an orchestral framework, the view of the visual arts is a broader one. For in the field of tension between sculpture, kinetics, interaction, painting and acoustics, bodies of sound are created that sometimes defy clear categorisation. They are not only instruments, but can also be machines, apparatuses, body extensions or sculptures. Here, the inventiveness in finding forms is freer than with conventional “instrument makers”. This leads to the point where sounding works go beyond optics and sound and become carriers of cultural, symbolic or political meaning.

Through their intermediate position as an instrument and autonomous work of art, the exhibited works also play with the interpretations of the exhibition space. Within the former swimming pool hall, there will be works that can be actively played by the public, while others will remain untouchable as aesthetic art objects. This contrasts two types of presentation. The interaction also makes the audience co-producers, as these works are only realised through their use. This turns the museum itself into a huge body of sound, sometimes harmonious, sometimes chaotic for many visitors.

With works by:
Anica Seidel, Tina Tonagel, Peter Vogel, Franziska Windisch, Andreas Schröder, Raphael Sbrzesny, Klaus Illi, Hernan Vargas