Duration: 11.2000
Location: Kunstlerhaus Am Deich, Bremen
Participants: 51
Visitors: people visiting the exhibition
Number of Events: 1

The idea of this project was derived from the fairy tale 'The Musicians of Bremen'. The old, redundant animals defined themselves as musicians, as artists, thus together finding new energy, a new purpose in life. Their state of mind, that of being artists, enables them to unite, scare away their old masters and create a life of their own. The artistic act, a kind of performance, became the catalyst for a utopian form of life, a place to be functionless. For this project, a wide range of music made in Bremen was collected from semi-professional and professional musicians, as well as the music of choirs and bands that make music just for fun. All of these musicians were asked to submit tapes and CDs to the Kunstlerhaus, Am Deich 68/69 on 10 November 2000. The productions were then simultaneously played via ghetto blasters as in a great conversation. Long, melodious passages, now delicate, now adamant, Arabic song, nursery rhymes and beats blended in poetic superimpositions, which were then further processed in a professional sound studio to become a noise sculpture, reproducing, in a complex layering of tones, the sound actually sung, played and produced in Bremen in November 2000.

This music of Bremen formed the sound tapestry of the installation in the gallery beginning on 26 November. On the door of the gallery a sign read, 'Attention! Door can only be opened from the outside!' When a visitor entered, the door locked behind him and a frightening noise was produced by four loudspeakers placed on top of one another. To escape the sound bombardment you had to run along the installation to the other door in the back. This door put you back outside, in another part of the block. Krachschlagen (Raising a Ruckus) (2000) was an act of common strength, 'resounding' the city in a sculpture of music in which art reclaimed its space, beyond functionality. The accompanying CD archived samples from the different musicians as well as the collective 'krachschlagen'.