A Residency and Exhibition Project
Can sound and music, notes and melodies influence the growth and formation of bacteria in the sewage? This is the question that will be explored by the Swedish artist Cecilia Jonsson in her project “Contemporary Diagram — Berlin.”
Her lab was the sewage research facility of the Berliner Wasserbetriebe in Berlin-Neukölln, where Berlin’s sewage system is scientifically studied. The sewage system offers ideal conditions for Jonsson’s experiments. It is populated by bacteria that can be cultured on iron plates. But what happens if these cultures are exposed to infra- and ultrasound, Jonsson’s own singing voice or Alexander Mosolov’s orchestral piece “The Iron Foundry” (1926–27)? The idea for “Contemporary Diagram” is based on the hydrodynamic experiments of the late-19th-century physicist Carl Anton Bjerknes who studied the mechanical behavior of fluids.
In her exhibition, Jonsson shows how different media can be used to materialize experimentally created microbiological processes.
Exhibition Opening: September 28, 2018, 6–9 p.m.
Opening Hours: Thursday–Monday: 1–7 p.m. Free admission.
Related Events at the Schering Stiftung:
September 18, 2018, 4–7 p.m.: Open Studio with Cecilia Jonsson. In the project room of the Schering Stiftung, the artist gives a first insight into her research and the resulting exhibition.
November 7, 2018, 6 p.m.: Prof. Kirsten Küsel (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) “Geomicrobiology: The art to shape the Earth”Lecture (in English), organized as part of the Berlin Science Week 2018.Registration for the lecture is required at:www.scheringstiftung.de/lecture-microbio
Organized by singuhr e.V. (www.singuhr.de) in cooperation with the Schering Stiftung. Cecilia Jonsson’s artist residency was supported by the City of Bergen and the AiR Bergen-Berlin program and made possible by the Berliner Wasserbetriebe. The Schering Stiftung is a partner of both the Berlin Art Week 2018 and the Berlin Science Week 2018.
Photo: Cecilia Jonsson, 2018.
