Concrete Dreams of Sound - Open Lab

22 April - 5 May 2024

As part of our Design Week at daadgalerie in Berlin, focused on the theme of sonic materialities, we hosted an Open Lab featuring the work of artists associated with the Concrete Dreams of Sound programme. The Open Lab was conceived not as an exhibition in the classical sense, but rather as a testing-grounds and investigative site activated through performances, workshops, and dialogue; and a space that evolved over the course of the two-week programme.

With: Andrius Arutiuanian, Alchemyverse (Bicheng Liang + Yixuan Shao), Merche Blasco, Gerard Gormley, Katarzyna Krakowiak, Signe Lidén, Nicole L’Huillier, Yara Mekawei, Brett Mommersteeg, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Samuel Perea-Díaz, Marina Peterson, Charles Richards, Jonathan Tyrrell, Jan St. Werner, Jona Wolf

Co-curated by Dahlia Borsche and Gascia Ouzounian

Production management by Sebastian Dürer

Photography by Eunice Maurice

Columna(s) (2024) by Nicole L’Huillier and Samuel Perea-Díaz

Transitory Sonic Bodies (front), by Samuel Perea-Díaz and Jona Wolf

Earth drill geophone by Signe Líden

Lead Lag Time Spool (2023) by Jan St. Werner

Messa in Luce (2022-23) by Alchemyverse

Video documentation of Anyanwu (2019) by Mendi + Keith Obadike

Concrete Dreams of Sound LP (2024) by Gerard Gormley and Manifesto for Materials’ Acoustics (2024) by Yara Mekawei

Geological turntable (2018) by Charles Richards

Selected works by Jonathan Tyrrell, as part of Architecture’s Acoustic Shadow

Day 1

  • Geological turntable by Charles Richards

  • Charles Richards in conversation

  • Detail of Geotones by Charles Richards and Gerard Gormley

  • Playing with Geotones

  • Activating Columna(s)

  • Activating Columna(s)

  • Susie Ibarra and Nico Daleman

  • Columna(s) post-activation

  • Nicole L'Huillier and Samuel Perea-Díaz

  • Gascia Ouzounian and Samuel Perea-Díaz

  • Samuel Perea-Díaz

  • Pyroclastic Earth Gut by Jonathan Tyrrell

  • Jona Wolf (Center)

  • Nicole L'Huillier with Transitory Sonic Bodies

  • Touching Transitory Sonic Bodies

  • Yixuan Shao and Merche Blasco

  • Merche Blasco, Ting Jung-Chen, Eva Tisnikar

  • Open Lab post-activations

Day 2: Signe Lidén, ‘Material Listening’ and Yara Mekawei, ‘Manifesto for Materials’ Acoustics’

  • Signe Lidén on working with longwave phenomena

  • Signe Lidén artist talk

  • Bicheng Liang, Jan St Werner, Signe Lidén with listening instruments

  • Brett Mommersteeg listening with Lidén's tidal wave microphones

  • Adjusting the tidal wave microphones

  • Varoujan Chetirian listening in Engelpark

  • Marina Peterson listening with Lidén's Canvas Microphone

  • Eva Tisknikar

  • Mendi Obadike

  • Samuel Perea-Díaz

  • Pyroclastic Earth Gut by Jonathan Tyrrell

  • Yara Mekawei on 'Manifesto for Materials' Acoustics'

  • Jona Wolf (Center)

  • Nicole L'Huillier with Transitory Sonic Bodies

  • Touching Transitory Sonic Bodies

  • Yixuan Shao and Merche Blasco

  • Merche Blasco, Ting Jung-Chen, Eva Tisnikar

  • Open Lab post-activations

Day 3: Alchemyverse, ‘WEND’ and Andrius Arutiunian

  • Gathering to recollect, connect, and resonate with geological memories, Alchemyverse presents WEND, a performance workshop that gestures our eyes and ears, bodies and spirits towards the telluric, the decaying, the transitory, and the unfixed.

  • 'WEND'

  • Alchemyverse (Bicheng Liang)

  • Alchemyverse (Yixuan Shao), in 'WEND'

  • A conductive sculpture in Alchemyverse's 'WEND"

  • Listening, 'WEND'

  • Materials and traces, 'WEND'

  • Yixuan Shao and Bicheng Liang

  • Andrius Arutiunian

  • Andrius Arutiunian and Gascia Ouzounian in conversation

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