Transitions of Transmissions, 2022

Installation & Performance
Festival der jungen Talente
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany

Improvisation is like a parachute jump: it is as if you are in free fall, surrounded by gravity and air resistance. A new space of presence opens up—neither emptiness nor confinement. Whoever embraces this feeling of being able to create a new ground under their feet through artistic improvisation—which in turn serves as another jumping-off point—will find completely new and unexpected collaborative partners.

Just as musicians such as Glenn Gould or Roland Kirk relied on interactions with animals and set aside their individual artistic ego, the focus of the performative installation Transitions of Transmissions is also on an empathy that transcends species. The experimental stage space forms a network of plants, fungi, and electronic equipment that is capable of making the organisms’ bioelectric fields audible. In this laboratory-like experimental arrangement, a dialogue between the non-human “voices” and the human performers takes place—a jam session with a piano and other musical instruments. The performance can be understood as a work of translation between human and non-human performers. Plants and mushrooms take on a creative role with their technically amplified signals. An immersive 3D-animated wall projection guides the viewer through landscapes that recreate a non-human aesthetic.

In collaboration with Sarah Melz, Stefan Maier, Balduin Mund & Joëlle Pidoux