Exhibition Texts
Installation
Ayumi Paul: The Singing Project
Ayumi Paul, 2022 © Ayumi Paul, Foto: Debora Mittelstaedt
no venue
Conceived as a collaborative practice and singing sculpture, Ayumi Paul’s The Singing Project began to unfold in many fluid forms at the Gropius Bau since the summer of 2021. The project took on a new spatial form in 2022 in a freely accessible space on the first floor of the building: arranged as an open score, five rooms held space for continuous possibilities to sing together, surrounded by displayed excerpts from Paul’s growing archive.
“What if an exhibition hall became a place of continuous song?”
— Ayumi Paul
Visitors were invited to connect with notes, sound and dream studies (Written in Water, 2021–ongoing), embroidered scores (I Hear You, 2006–ongoing) and Salzlieder (salt songs) (Here as well as elsewhere, 2022–ongoing) and shaped the space with their own voices. Additionally, Sounding Seeds (2022–ongoing), a series of audio works by the artist corresponding with the change of season during her time as Artist in Residence, included meditation guidance and personal vignettes, audible in the space.
Workshops and gatherings invited participants to build connections between voice and endeavours like feminist movements, soil regeneration, care of the dead and mourning.
