Nina Emge (It's never too late to) Stop, Look & Listen (Part 1)

Nina Emge
(IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO) STOP, LOOK & LISTEN Part 1

In her practice, Nina Emge (*1995 in Zurich, lives and works in Zurich and Berlin) investigates methodologies of listening. Her project for Halle für Kunst (It’s never too late to) Stop, Look & Listen, combines her exploration of sound, composition and listening practices with the development and construction of playable sculptures: idiophones. In organology, the term idiophone (from ídios ‘own’ and phōneĭn ‘to sound’) refers to a group of instruments whose sounding body itself generates the sound – like a bell or a xylophone.

Both the establishment of a classical musical canon and the forms of historiography that underlie it are based on mechanisms of distinction. These mechanisms can also be traced through the marginalisation of diasporic musical traditions and through collective musical practices that exist without being fixed by compositions.

On receiving an invitation to exhibit at Halle für Kunst, Nina Emge has extended the invitation, resulting in the performance project Calmô with Customs & Borders, Jesse G, Yantan Ministry and Julian Zehnder, which will take place at Halle für Kunst on the closing weekend, and a decentralised radio station 17 Days, organised in collaboration with Timon Essoungou, for which Earwax, Michael Akstaller, GOLCE, Nicole L'Huillier, Customs & Borders, Esengo, Mukuna (Okra Collective), Niramy, Tracy September, FUBU Collective, Tati au Miel, Suutoo, Ev-E, MIMI, Jesse G, Yantan Ministry and Julian Zehnder have each compiled a radio set. The sets will be broadcast by different radio stations, as well as being audible in Halle für Kunst at the time of streaming. The reused dance floor that has been installed in the Halle für Kunst, provides the stage for the idiophones, as well as for the programme organised by the artist in collaboration with Halle für Kunst.

All three parts of the project operate independently of each other and form networks of exchange between the individuals involved and the context of Halle für Kunst. The ensemble of (It's never too late to) Stop, Look & Listen, 17 Days and Calmô conceptualises a collective form of sound production and listening that departs from the technical specifications of a formalized approach to music, while simultaneously constituting a proposal for a decentralised exhibition practice.

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