Twelve Voices

Photos: Andreas Bormann

In the middle of the city centre there is this place that seems to be enraptured. A moment ago I was among many people and in a turbulent business world, now, here in the monastery garden, it is almost silent.

It is that quiet that the penetrating sounds seem to be very soft and as if they came from far away. During this listening observation, other places come to my mind, in Milan, Montréal, New York, Kyoto, Paris and of course Berlin, where I consciously investigated this phenomenon for the first time. Interestingly enough, I have not remembered these listening experiences for a long time and now they are suddenly present again when I enter the monastery garden, each one of them in its individuality and distinctiveness.

 

The place itself is a finished acoustic moment, just like the others. I describe what makes these places constitute of. I put my thoughts into the linguistic form and thus create a number of short statements about the listening process, the moment of perceived silence, the architecture, the city and other observations.

Here in the "Brüdernkloster", twelve large Gothic windows connect the cloister with the garden. Each window also has twelve sections, consisting of a cast-iron frame construction, but without panes. In each of these free fields I place a plastic pane that fits exactly, but from window to window always in a different field. The inserted surfaces show a round hole perforation to the outside and a fixed loudspeaker on its back. Thus twelve sound sources are created, encircling the monastery garden.

My acoustic material are selected voices that recite my audio-visual impressions and auditory observations in such places, but not in the form of reading aloud. Twelve selected voices whisper my observations, as if it were happening very close to the ear of the other person. Each voice appears in a different window and in its own timing.


  • 12 Stimmen/ Kunst 8, Klostergarten Hinter Brüdern, Theologisches Zentrum, Braunschweig 2010


Perforated plastic panes; speakers; cables; whispering voices; 12-channel composition; electronical equipment.