26.01.2024

2-channel audio 15:08 minutes, loop, graphite pencil on aluminum tube, 250x3cm, black and white inkjet print, 40x30cm, Publication, 2-channel audio 26:36 minutes
Der lange Atem, Kluckyland, Vienna, 25.01.2024

Der lange Atem is an sound art and research project on celebration and hero organs - instruments that were used as sonic monu- ments or memorials in the Nazi era. Specifi- cally these are organs erected between the 1920s and 1940s in Germany and Austria. These instruments were explicitly dedicated to the memory of the victims of the First World War, or were used as an essential part of National Socialist festivities and celebra- tions (often as part of commemorations of the dead and heroes). Originally, many of these organs were installed either in church- es, in pseudo-sacred spaces such as National Socialist festival halls and honor rooms or in a secular context such as in school facilities.

The 15-minute sound installation Der lange Atem is an auditory documentation and exploration of three organs. The instruments were visited on-site, and their sound, acous- tic environment, and the organists at work were acoustically documented. In addition to these field recordings, excerpts from a radio program script, including director’s instruc- tions, are included. The text is from a feature program broadcast by SWR in 1985, on the occasion of the 50th “anniversary” of the organ in Berlin Mariendorf. The text attached to the aluminum tube is part of a poem about the Hero Organ in Lemgo from 1933.