*1

Rohrism

sound installation, München/Berlin 2009

“Rohrism” is an ode to the Gasometer Schöneberg in Berlin, an industrial area around the great gas holder from 1910, awaiting its destiny. The Gasometer Schöneberg is the planned location for the European Energy Forum (Euref), an european-russian “Think Tank” for science, the economy and politics on energy issues. Lack of investors as well as public activism trying to prevent “a new Potsdamer Platz” built on the listed heritage has put sticks in the wheels for the realization of the visionary ideas for the area. Rohrism is an auditive excavation in the space between what was and what is yet to come.

*2

Pipes are laying all over the site, both old, degraded and new ones, stored for an uncertain future. They are the compositional core of the work. The surroundings are filtered through the pipes which are recorded using stereo omnidirectional microphones on a rainy day. Little by little, the resonance of the pipes themselves as well as other metal object takes over -hidden movements trigged by a car-radio amplifier with a coil and a contact mic.

rohrism: 08.51 min (please listen to it with headphones)

over: from the exhibition: blowup, 2009, Munich

*1: “Amplifiers at Bolling Field, 1921. National Photo Co”

*2: http://www.euref.de/en/location/historische-aufnahmen/