Frederike Moormann
Anybody out there?!
100 Jahre Radio in Deutschland
12. November - 22. December 2020Artspace D21 Leipzig
“Dusty devices that look as if they came straight out of Jules Verne's bygone technological utopia, radio and audio collectors whose homes are crammed to the ceiling with receivers, authors who wistfully recall a time when all you needed to build a radio, or at least repair one, was a soldering iron and a bit of wire – well, and... the tinkering, the alchemy of chaotic mass communication, the sense of mission, the desire for a radio service that is not just about announcements or entertainment.
Emancipation begins with the acceptance that it will not be wholesome, neat and beautiful, but that destruction, disruption and irritation are the most desirable states in order not to despair at the desire celebrated elsewhere to hold on to the status quo.“
(Ralf Wendt/ Frederike Moormann)
The first German test broadcast via radio was transmitted from Königs Wusterhausen on 22 December 1920, three years before the start of official radio programming. This provides an opportunity to reflect on ‘100 years of radio’ in 2020. The medium of radio stands for broadcasting from one point to many receivers and intensive contact with the public. Long before today's mobile communications, radio opened up an acoustic space of simultaneity and location independence: Anybody out there?
This participatory broadcasting and exhibition project is dedicated to the transformations and potential of immaterial transmission and reception: What acoustic and social space does radio open up? What kinds of community does radio allow – in the device, in front of the device? Where and when does radio (listening) take place – who uses it, for what and why? What contemporary and future forms of radio await us?
During the pandemic-related closure, the D21 Kunstraum was be transformed into a broadcasting and listening room from which the multi-voiced radio programme by sound artists, radio collectives and students at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig (including on the FM frequencies of Radio Blau and Radio Corax, on stations from the international radio art network radia.fm, and on the stream at d21-leipzig.de).
The live radio programme from D21, curated by Frederike Moormann and Ralf Wendt, has a test, experimental and laboratory character that explores the possibilities of radio as a medium of the present and allows us to radically question: our ideas about radio voice and language, about information, entertainment, access and participation, about programming and time, about truth and listening. And why is there always someone presenting?
During the live broadcasts, the D21 Kunstraum becomes a space for communication: like on a stage, the ongoing production of the programmes can be followed through the shop windows. The sound art programme One to Many , which premieres on Deutschlandfunk Kultur on 18 December 2020 (from 0:05 a.m.), forms an extension into the national radio space. The programme One to Many revives the ‘first German radio broadcast’ from 1920, which was not recorded at the time, as an artistic re-enactment. Using the medium of sound art, both sides are given a voice: the broadcasters and the listeners. One to Many can be heard in advance as a preview in the livestream.
Link to Exhibition at D21 artspace
Live Radio concept & curation - Ralf Wendt & Frederike Moormann
curation of the project – Dieter Daniels, Constanze Müller, Angelika Waniek, Frederike Moormann
Participating artists - Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Sven Bergelt, Anna Bromley, Maximilian Glass, Maria Karpushina, Alexander Körner, Tina Klatte, Felix Kubin, Benjamin Kunath, Sylvia Rohr, Claire Serres, Hannah Sieben, Richard v. d. Schulenburg, Matteo Spanó, Abir Tawakalna, Sarah Washington, Ralf Wendt; die Kollektive Radio Cashmere/DIY Church, Liquid Penguin Ensemble und Geräuschkulisse sowie Studierende und Alumnis des Experimentellen Radios der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (u.a. Rafael Jové, Christina Baron, Sylvia Rohr, Severin Schenkel, Mara May) und Studierende der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (u.a. mit Antonia Bannwarth, Lennard Becker, Alicia Franzke, Tatjana Lentini, Tianxu Liu, Adrian Lück, Merlin Meister, Theresa Münnich, Leni Pohl, Jan-Luca Ott, Soubhi Shami, Stefania Smolkina)
Thanks - Laura Kansy, Newroz Çelik, Lefteris Krysalis, Jason Langheim, Henriette Theurich, Paul Hauptmeier