"Beneath the Earth" Outdoors: with Jan Köchermann in the underpass, with Phillip Schulze in the sewer system
By Arnika Fürgut for #32.
The major exhibition "Beneath the Earth: From Kafka to Kippenberger" will be on view until August 10, 2014 at the K21 Ständehaus. Fifteen different artistic positions shift the theme of the subterranean into the foreground. Outside of the exhibition galleries, the show is accompanied by numerous artistic projects, installations, and performances: two of them took place in July, and moreover in precisely the setting that is showcased in the exhibition itself: below ground.
The Hamburg artist Jan Köchermann is mainly preoccupied with aspects and context of the subterranean realm, and primarily in sculptural terms: in 2012, he showed the accessible large-scale installation "Dead End Heedfeld," a labyrinth of shafts and chambers, at the Hamburger Kunsthalle.
"Hair and Other Hip Hop"
For the "Long Night of Performances," the Quadriennale, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen invited him to come to Düsseldorf: Köchermann came and brought along his concept of the "Oratorium," in progress since 1996, a musical performance that is temporally limited by its fuel source. 200 milliliters of petrol were made available to each of the five bands Köchermann invited for electricity, generators, amplifiers, microphones, and electric guitars – the stage for these subterranean concerts was an underpass in the vicinity of the Düsseldorf Tonhalle (Concert Hall).
In his temporary work, entitled "Underground Reflections," the Düsseldorf artist and composer Phillip Schulze sets sound in counterpoint with the subterranean world: he installed a large sound installation in a 180-meter-long canal located in a disused lateral section of Düsseldorf's sewer system.
"Underground Reflections"
The composition – produced especially for this geographic and urban context, and consisting of algorithmically aggregated noises and sounds – invited visitors to perceive the constricted, dark tunnel in new ways, not just visually, but acoustically as well. Equipped with a small pocket flashlight, each participant had a time slot of precisely 21 minutes and 18 seconds to be guided through the dark, eerie tunnel solely by noises and sounds.
Jan Köchermann's performance piece “Haare und anderer Hip Hop” ("Hair and other Hip Hop") took place on July 19 in the framework of the Quadriennale Düsseldorf. A video documentary was screened in the lower level of the K21 Ständehaus during the exhibition "Beneath the Earth: From Kafka to Kippenberger."
Phillip Schulze's "Underground Reflections" took place on July 16 as part of the new accompanying program UNTITLED of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.
