19 March 2024
The Akademie der Künste presents an exhibition of sound art: Oscillations: Cape Town – Berlin
Exhibition:27 April – 19 May 2024; opening weekend: Friday, 26 April 2024, from 7 pm, and Saturday, 27 April 2024, from 2 pm, Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg
Starting on 27 April 2024, the Akademie der Künste is presenting sound works from South Africa and Germany in the exhibition Oscillations: Cape Town – Berlin. During the opening weekend (26/27 April) the installative works will be supplemented and enlarged upon by performances, DJ sets, artist tours and talks.
Ten artists reveal in their works the cracks in South Africa’s post-apartheid society, offering transformation and healing in various forms and probing the question of who owns sound in a postcolonial transhemispheric context. Sounds taken from environments that are both familiar and unfamiliar are deconstructed and reconstructed, revealing a wealth of meaning to the listener. Indigenous sound practices and spirituality are combined with the latest technologies and contemporary modes of artistic expression. There will be celebrations of two special anniversaries: thirty years of democracy in South Africa and the bicentenary of the creation of Lesotho.
As part of a two-year process, the project partners – the Akademie der Künste, the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape and Deutschlandfunk Kultur – established a space for dialogue, artist residencies, collaborations and the creation of new sound works. Seven sound artists, musicians and instrument makers were selected on the basis of an open call put out in southern Africa; together with the two academy members Christiana Kubisch and Kirsten Reese as well as Neo Muyanga, they constitute the project’s artistic team. Residencies set up in Berlin and Cape Town facilitated research, sound recordings and the development of project-specific technologies for the new works. The research also gave rise to radio productions, which are being broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur.
With: Muhammad Dawjee, Garth Erasmus, Zara Julius, Nkosenathi Ernie Koela, Christina Kubisch, Mpho Molikeng, Gabi Motuba, Neo Muyanga, Denise Onen, Kirsten Reese
Oscillations is a project of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town) and Deutschlandfunk Kultur / Klangkunst (Berlin).
Sponsored by the TURN2 Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. With funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).
With support from the DAAD Art and Media programme, the Cultural Foundation Schloss Wiepersdorf and the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS).
Exhibition details
Oscillations: Cape Town – Berlin. Sonic Inquiries and Practices / Sonische Forschung und Praxis
Duration: 27 April – 19 May 2024
Opening times: Tue–Fri, 2–7 pm, Sat + Sun, 11 am – 7 pm
Admission: €9/6, free for under-18s and on Tuesdays and the first Sunday of each month
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin
Tel. 030 200 57-2000, info@adk.de
Opening weekend
Friday, 26 April 2024, 7 pm, free admission
Oscillations artists will be in attendance and give performances; with a DJ set by Robert Machiri
Saturday, 27 April 2024, from 2 pm, free admission
Guided tours, discussions with Oscillations artists, and more
From 8.30 pm, admission €13/7
Performances / DJ sets with Steloolive, Luca Forcucci and Mpho Molikeng et al. as well as Oscillations artists
Podcast editions of the works available from 4 April 2024 on hoerspielundfeature.de
Press contact on behalf of the Akademie der Künste:
Christiane Dramé, fabrikpublik, presse@fabrikpublik.de, Tel.: 0173-874 19 39