SCHINKEL PAVILLON PRESENTS
DAS NUMEN
DAS NUMEN SONOR

17.03. -14.04.2013
OPENING 16.03.2013, 7 PM


Dear Editors,
In their exhibition DAS NUMEN SONOR, Berlin-based art collective DAS NUMEN transforms the entire Schinkel Pavilion into a sound sculpture that draws an aural map of the city. The four artists of the collective, Julian Charrière, Andreas Greiner, Markus Hoffmann and Felix Kiessling, completely transmute the Schinkel Pavilion: instead of a quiet haven amid the hectic city, the pavilion becomes an amplifier of sorts, yielding to the pressures of the metropolis. They counterpoise the vast panorama unfolding in front of the viewer with the oppressive hum of the bass. The exhibition space becomes a dual observatory - it provides a panoramic vista of the city around it, while at the same time feeding back its acoustic pattern.

For the piece DAS NUMEN SONOR, the artists of DAS NUMEN installed seven seismographs around the city that register the vibrations around them. Subwoofers then broadcast the audio signals on the pavilion's seven windows. DAS NUMEN has identified several bass frequencies that turn the windows into optimal soundboards, i.e. the frequencies that produce the best sound from the windowpanes in their specific mounting. The amplitudes of the vibrations vary according to the activities in the different areas of the city, such that some windowpanes react louder than others. The Schinkel Pavilion locates itself, like a compass, within the city. It renders the activity levels in the different districts audible, while at the same time inscribing itself into the representation of the city. The building is both sound box and architectural noise at once. The viewer can discern the current levels of activity in the city from the sounds and vibrations, and feel the life in its different districts.

DAS NUMEN joins together an intensive engagement with spatial considerations and biological systems. They translate their artistic-scientific handling of natural phenomena in urban contexts into aesthetic realms of experience, which sensitize the viewer to their surrounding and call for a contemplation of it. The piece DAS NUMEN SONOR does precisely that: the work is based on the observation that each city vibrates in its own individual frequency - a city's typical feedback is the sum of all the activities that take place in it. This sort of underground vibration does not penetrate into the collective consciousness, even though the body might register it. Translating the feedback into basses, however, renders it both audible and palpable, and offers the viewer a new perspective on the city of Berlin a well as the pavilion. One consciously engages with their surrounding through the art experience.

The Schinkel Pavillon would like to thank GFZ - Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum for its kind support.


Schinkel Pavillon
Oberwallstrasse 1
10117 Berlin
+49 30 20886444
info@schinkelpavillon.de
www.schinkelpavillon.de


Press contact:
BUREAU N | Silke Neumann
silke.neumann@bureau-n.de
+49 171 523 8765
www.bureau-n.de