Soundshapes – In Between Frequencies
The artist Ayumi Paul has been working closely with the Gropius Bau for several years. In 2024, she developed a sound work that announces the building’s closure via loudspeaker every evening: The exuberant laughter of children is followed by farewells in a variety of languages, which are currently spoken by the Gropius Bau’s employees. The work’s title – Matane またね – roughly translates to “see you again” in Japanese. The sound piece is played 30 minutes before closing every day and can also be found in German Sign Language and International Sign Language on the screens throughout the building.
Photo Ayumi Paul: Debora Mittelstaedt, photo Gropius Bau: Luca Girardini
Taking place both online and offline, the Gropius Bau’s first programme on artificial intelligence (AI) focuses on AI’s utopian and poetic possibilities. In 2023, the first part of the programme, Ether’s Bloom, kicked off a sequence of new projects including a Writer in Residence, artistic explorations, a podcast, lectures and conversations. The development of an app with a special focus on education and accessibility forms the programme’s second part.
Visual: Luis Kürschner, with kind support from Studio Linné
What if people met singing freely together?
What if an exhibition venue became a place of continuous song?
The Singing Project (2021–ongoing) is a collective practice and singing sculpture composed by Ayumi Paul, the Gropius Bau’s Artist in Residence 2022. Since its onset, the project has taken shape in a series of workshops, gatherings and an exhibition, hosting an open space to freely sing and listen to one another.
Ayumi Paul, The Singing Project, 2022
The Resonance Room shares local knowledge and experiences of mental health in Berlin. Since September 2021, a number of projects have developed that question the understanding of and approach to mental health in this city: How do individual health and society interact? How does history affect the present? What forms of care, solidarity and community are designed and practised in urban society? The resonance of different voices from the neighbourhood, academia and civic society can be experienced here. As a meeting place, the Resonance Room gathers these voices and engages them in dialogue.
Resonance Room.
photo: Luca Girardini