Radiophonic Spaces

The exhibition “Radiophonic Spaces” transports ethereal radio art to the confines of the museum, building a bridge between two worlds which are actually closer together than one might guess. Even today, numerous writers, composers, theatre artists and fine artists continue to make use of the diverse possibilities of radio. “Radiophonic Spaces” connects the artistic use of radio art and radiophony with an academic research project, headed by the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. The results of this creative collaboration will be presented as an artistically designed obstacle course featuring 200 treasures of international radio art on various levels. The project highlights relationships between historical and contemporary positions – from Antonin Artaud and John Cage to Michaela Mélian, Rimini Protokoll and Natascha Sadr Haghighian. On the first level, visitors are acoustically immersed in the art form. Wearing specially designed ear phones, their movement through the room triggers various works of radio art to automatically play. The sound pieces are arranged in ten narratives, e.g. “Record Stories” and “Radio Silence”. Iconic pieces of radio art will be presented, each of which will represent a narrative. A web platform – modelled after a virtual mind map – will then investigate the historical development of radio art. This section will explore new possibilities of algorithmic sorting (data retrieval) of archive collections.
This project presents works of radio art which would normally be inaccessible to most people, stored in the depths of such renowned archives as the Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, Lautarchiv der Humboldt-Universität Berlin and the New Radiophonic Workshop (BBC). The project organisers are collaborating with various radio broadcasters including documenta 14 Radio operated by SAVVY Berlin. They aim to dynamically adapt the site-specific circumstances of each venue in Basel, Berlin and Weimar into the exhibition, which will be supplemented by a diverse accompanying programme.

Artistic director: Nathalie Singer, Experimentelles Radio, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Head of the research group “Radiophonic Cultures” (Sinergia/SNF): Ute Holl, Media Studies Dept., University of Basel

Curators, radio researchers and radio artists: Ulrich Bassenge, Ulrich Gerhardt, Gaby Hartel, artists’ collective k.a.a.l., Jochen Meißner, Chikashi Miyama (JP), Wolfram Wessels, and others
Interior Design: Cevdet Erek
Arrangement and technical realisation: MESO Digital Interiors GmbH

Broadcasters, partners and participating research institutes: national and international public-law radio broadcasters (ARD, Austrian Broadcasting Corp., Swiss Broadcasting Company, Deutschlandradio, BBC and INA) as well as important radio art archives (Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, Studienzentrum für Künstlerpublikationen Weserburg, Lautarchiv der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, archives of German-language broadcasting companies, New Radiophonic Workshop, INA/Groupe de Recherches Musicales and private archives), Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, ZKM, Musicology Dept. – University of Basel, Electronic Studio of the School of Music (ESB) in Basel.

Venues and Dates:

• Museum Tinguely, Basel: 24 Oct. 2018 – 27 Jan. 2019
• Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin: 1 Nov. – 10 Dec. 2018 (as part of the “100 Years of Now” project);
• University Library of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar: 26 July – 19 Sep. 2019 (as part of Bauhaus 100)