wednesday, 13 november Open 12 — 19
Municipal Gallery Arsenał

Stary Rynek 6, 61-772 Poznań
T. +48 61 852 95 02
E. arsenal@arsenal.art.pl

Opening hours:

Poniedziałek: nieczynne
Wtorek – Sobota: 12 — 19
Niedziela: 12 — 16

What is the history behind this sound?
26.11.2020, noon

Works purchased for the collection of Arsenał Municipal Gallery include Rafał Jakubowicz’s Bauhaus. It evokes the history of Franz Ehrlich, a graduate of the Dresden Bauhaus, who as an inmate at Buchenwald camp designed the inscription above the camp gate saying: Jedem das Seine ("To each what they deserve"). The installation was inspired by Ehrlich’s relations with the GDR regime, his wartime experience and the general problem of involvement of German institutions and enterprises in the crimes of the Third Reich.

In his installation Jakubowicz made up the BAUHAUS inscription using the font from Buhenwald. Apparently, it is just an inscription, a logo, one of many aesthetic objects that surround us. However, the description is an extremely important part of the work. When a viewer is interested in what stands behind the inscription on the wall itself, seemingly a mere aesthetic example of lettering referring to the famous school of design, they will look deeper, learn Ehrlich's history, his teaching work, incarceration in the camp and further work in the GDR. From now on, it may be difficult to forget all this. Contrary to what the representatives of the post-war avant-garde were aiming for, politics and its context cannot be completely avoided.

The point of reference for the workshop will be the work of Rafał Jakubowicz and the experience of working with the sound of the workshop moderator, Hubert Wińczyk. During the workshop, we will propose young people an artistic activity which can be treated as an information virus. During the workshop, the words of Pericles, the Athenian statesman, will float above our heads: "Just because you are not interested in politics does not mean that politics will not become interested in you". These words may also be of interest to young people who, although they do not have the right to vote, are developing their own worldview and sensibility, drawing information largely from media. Through the proposed actions, Hubert Wińczyk will want to show participants that politics is not just the protagonists of vicious memes but matters concerning all aspects of social life that affect us, whether we want it or not.

During the classes, young people will record ambient sounds or use fragments of popular music, announcements, radio commercials, and any sounds from the city and the broadly defined social audiosphere. These recordings, made by means of easily accessible equipment (smartphones, tablets), will be transferred to another context or will acquire a new meaning after being processed by means of sound editing software.