Schering Stiftung

Exhibition 

Installation view of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the project room of the Schering Stiftung, Berlin

Installation view of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the project room of the Schering Stiftung, Berlin
Photo: Jens Ziehe

Installation view of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the project room of the Schering Stiftung, Berlin

Installation view of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the project room of the Schering Stiftung, Berlin
Photo: Jens Ziehe

Installation view of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the project room of the Schering Stiftung, Berlin

Installation view of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the project room of the Schering Stiftung, Berlin
Photo: Jens Ziehe

Annika Kahrs, Gravity’s Tune (film still)

Annika Kahrs, Gravity’s Tune (film still)
Photo: Annika Kahrs & Produzentengalerie Hamburg (2023)

Annika Kahrs, Gravity’s Tune (film still)

Annika Kahrs, Gravity’s Tune (film still)
Photo: Annika Kahrs & Produzentengalerie Hamburg (2023)

Annika Kahrs

Gravity’s Tune

Annika Kahrs

Gravity’s Tune

Duration:

September 14 – November 26, 2023

Exhibition opening:

Wednesday, 13. September 2023, 6–10 p.m.

Opening hours:

Thursday and Friday, 1-7p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

Venue:

Exhibtion room of the Schering Stiftung
Unter den Linden 32-34
10117 Berlin


In her solo exhibition, artist Annika Kahrs presents a new video work interpreting – in collaboration with the composer Louis d’Heudières and musicians from Los Angeles – the acoustic signal that helped make gravitational waves audible for the first time. Dr. Keith Thorne, physicist at the US-based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), serves as scientific consultant for Kahrs’ artistic-musical exploration of gravitational waves. In 2015, LIGO was the first to translate gravitational waves – waves in the tissue of space-time that are created, among other things, by colliding black holes and that “travel” at the speed of light – into acoustic signals.

Kahrs uses the acoustic recordings of astrophysics to raise fundamental questions about how they stimulate our imagination and provide insight into events that are difficult to imagine. Kahrs sensitizes the film’s viewers to the fact that it is precisely such “unusual” sounds that always also challenge our understanding of hearing, sound, and not least music. In the words of scientist Keith Thorne, LIGO could indeed be seen as the quietest concert hall on Earth, detecting an extraterrestrial sound that is filtered out of a wealth of terrestrial background noise with maximum precision.

In her films, installations, and performances, Annika Kahrs deals with sounds in the broadest sense of the word. She is interested in sounds with special properties, including sounds in the infrasonic range, but also in sounds that, thanks to their physical properties, express a phenomenon such as the gravitational waves described above. Kahrs approaches these acoustic phenomena via the medium of music: her work opens an entryway into inaudible and hardly imaginable (sound) worlds, while also referring to both the possibilities and limitations of the audible.

The video work presented in the exhibition was created as part of her 2021 Villa Aurora Fellowship in Los Angeles and is made possible with support from MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig Holstein and the Schering Stiftung.

 

 

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Finissage of the exhibition "Gravity's Tune" by Annika Kahrs 

Sounds from the Universe: Measuring and Interpreting Gravitational Waves 

Artist talk — November 24, 2023

Starting from Annika Kahrs's most recent video work, Christina Landbrecht and Till Fellrath will engage the artist in a discussion of her work to date.

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Lecture — November 07, 2023

Lecture by Alessandra Buonanno followed by a discussion with Annika Kahrs and Louis d'Heudières on the sound of gravitational waves.

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Gallery

Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023
Opening of the exhibition Gravity's Tune at the Schering Stiftung, September 13, 2023

Opening

Annika Kahrs: Gravity's Tune

Visit the media library

From the press 

"Tones, sound, music have always been the focus of Kahrs' interest, both privately and as an artist. Music as material. Music as a form of communication. Music as a structure. Also as a symbol for social systems."

Beate Scheder in: Berlin Art Week, 14. August 2023

"Gravity's Tune is a great mix of documentary and artistic approach to science."

Radio report by Barbara Wiegand, for re-listening on rbb Kultur, published on September 12, 2023    

"You actually have to watch her movie several times. Firstly, to understand what gravitational waves actually are. And then to realize the monstrosity that a tiny signal, infinitely magnified, is translated and obscured."

Birgit Rieger in: Tagesspiegel, 05. November 2023

"I tend to focus on the fascination and try to be inspired by these phenomena and make them visible and audible. In this way, I try to appropriate the musical potential of scientific findings in my artistic work."

A conversation with the artist Annika Kahrs. For re-listening on radioeins rbb, published on 10. November 2023

"The film 'Gravity's Tune' opens up an artistic and poetic approach to the physical phenomenon of gravitational waves. Keith Thorne, who works as a physicist at LIGO, provides scientific support for the cinematic-musical examination."

Norbert Lossau in: welt, 14. November 2023

"For me, it was beautiful to see how the musical and scientific worlds are coming together and showing their connections. Both disciplines try to uncover the invisible and the hidden and thus make it visible and audible. Both try to understand complex systems, understandably present these, shift perspectives and build a relation to everyday life. They both know they are currently on the trail of something difficult to understand. But this something provides, at the same time, the imagination and the knowledge of the vastness of the universe."

A conversation with the artist Annika Kahrs and Katažyna Jankovska in: CLOT, 23. November 2023

Partners 

This Project is realized in cooperation with the following partners:

Berlin Art Week
MOIN Filmförderung
Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e. V.

The Artist 

Annika Kahrs lives and works in Hamburg and Berlin. She has been awarded a number of prizes and scholarships including Villa Aurora, L.A., USA; VILA SUL, Brazil; Max-Pechstein-Förderpreis; Stiftung Kunstfonds; and the George-Maciunas-Förderpreis donated by René Block. Kahrs has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at the 16th Lyon Biennale, at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin; 5th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art; Kunsthalle Bremerhaven; Savvy Contemporary, Berlin; On the Road exhibition project in Santiago de Compostela; the Bienal Internacional de Curitiba, Brazil; Hamburger Kunsthalle; Hybrid Art Festival in Moscow; KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin; Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn; Gropius Bau, Berlin; Goldsmiths University of London; Flat Time House, London, and the Velada de Santa Lucia festival in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

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Contact & social networks

Schering Stiftung

Unter den Linden 32-34
10117 Berlin

Telefon: +49.30.20 62 29 62
Email: info@scheringstiftung.de

Opening hours
Project space

Thursday to Monday: 1 pm - 7 pm
Saturday to Sunday: 11 am - 7 pm
free entrance

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