MARC BEHRENSNEWSBIOMUSICARTWORKSTEXTBANDCAMPYOUTUBECONTACT
2009
GGAAFFISEC
sound installation
(Weißfrauen Diakoniekirche Frankfurt am Main, Germany; 2012 Miré de Tibães, Braga, Portugal)

The eight most frequent notes from the melodies of Hymns no. 124–127 of the German Protestant songbook were determined statistically to form an organ chord to be played for two weeks. These notes can be heard as tones in Protestant churches at Pentecost (Pentecost 2009 was on May 31) and are frozen as a sound essence, as “tuning” [the German word “Stimmung” can mean “tuning” and “mood” alike] and as reference to the reverberant space of the church building as well as to the steady murmur of traffic in the city centre.
The Bahnhofsviertel [the district surrounding the main station] in Frankfurt am Main is a highly complex area. Any visitor passing by will surely note the high number of shops selling cheap merchandise. It is actually from this source that the sound generators for this installation stem, in the form of eight keyboards. These are already in used condition and have partly been labelled with stickers by kids during a past music course. The occasional squawking and noisy quality to the sounds from these keyboards create a contrast to the typical hymn, which once generated faith, ardency, harmony, and spiritual warmth. The traditional hymn was not only characterised by a at times powerful organ sound, but also by the accompanying communal singing. In the installation GGAAFFISEC, a tonal core is all that remains as a surrogate of those hymns, as though it were displaced in time.
There are many places within the Bahnhofsviertel that one can only become familiar with through actual experience. In the Weißfrauen Diakoniekirche, the functions of spirituality, not only as a constituent quality of the church but also by means of art exhibitions taking place in the building, and social practice in the form of a daytime meeting place for homeless people on the basement level, are united.

Materials: 8 keyboards, electronics in aluminium box, 4 drawings in aluminium frame, German Protestant songbook
Dimensions: site specific

Acknowledgements: Achim Farr, Gerald Hintze.

In memoriam Gerald Hintze 1949–2012.

an article [German] about the installation included in the «Memory» project by Home Abroad
 




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