Alexandra Pirici: Attune

Alexandra Pirici initially worked in the fields of dance and choreography before becoming who she is today – one of the leading female artists of contemporary performance art. In her pieces, elements of dance, sculpture, spoken word and music fuse into one. Pirici has now been commissioned by Hamburger Bahnhof to create a work for its main hall. Entitled “Attune”, the exhibition incorporates a combination of natural scientific and artistic methods, creating a landscape of artificial sand dunes, a botanical sculpture and a burbling pond. The various elements of the exhibition are activated through human and non-human participation. In addition to twelve performers, chemical processes and sound waves are used to affect the landscape. The result is a setting that functions like a real-world laboratory, in which one can directly experience the behaviour of complex systems. These include forests, deserts and oceans, as well as political and social structures. 

As part of a new concept for its museum rooms which aims to make Hamburger Bahnhof more accessible to socially diverse target groups in the long term, visitors will be initially granted free admission to the main hall. Curators are working to develop new learning formats and encourage intensive interdisciplinary exchange in an effort to establish a continually growing network. The exhibition “Attune” will be jointly developed with experts and scientists from various natural scientific research institutes, such as the Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Freie Universität Berlin, the Institute of Coastal Systems at the Helmholtz Center Hereon in Schleswig-Holstein, and the Museum für Naturkunde, which is located near Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin.

Artistic director/curator: Catherine Nichols
Artist: Alexandra Pirici
Exhibition: Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin: 25 Apr. – 6 Oct. 2024