Soundshapes: In Between Frequencies

Soundshapes – In Between Frequencies activates the two entrances of the Gropius Bau with sound works by Kapwani Kiwanga and Janine Jembere, creating an acoustic connection between the central entrance portal of the neo-Renaissance building and the step-free entrance. Drawing from the potential of porosity, this architectural intervention challenges the monumentality and statics of the building in an attempt to destabilise the divide between interior and exterior. Soundshapes – In Between Frequencies is conceived and curated by Julia Grosse and Carolin Köchling.

Kapwani Kiwanga: 500ft

31 July to 16 October 2023

How does architecture control the physical movement and psychological state of humans? In her sound piece 500ft, Kapwani Kiwanga puts different disciplinary tools of built environments and colonial strategies of separation into relation. Drawing from her research into public institutions such as hospitals, prisons and urban spaces, the artist traces how disciplinary architectures travel and mutate across times and geographies. A recurring motif is the way in which the interior is shaped in response to the exterior in an effort to govern human behaviour and nature. The title of the work refers to the minimum distance between areas designated for the local population and those for European settlers in the French colonies, defined during the International Conference on Colonial Urbanism (Paris, 1931).
 

Janine Jembere: endurance – a sound shower

18 October 2023 to 1 January 2024

For Soundshapes – In Between Frequencies, Janine Jembere develops a veritable sonic embrace, a shower of words in as many languages as possible.

“The words that have been said to me reverberate in my head until I begin to tell them to myself. To find the strength to rebel, to fight and to endure, I need those words to nourish my anger and my love. These are the words I need to hear; these are the words I want you to hear.”
— Janine Jembere