Nina Emge Presents 17 Days

In her practice, Nina Emge (*1995 in Zurich, lives and works in Zurich
and Berlin) investigates methodologies of listening. Her project for
Halle für Kunst (It's never too late to) Stop, Look & Listen, combines
her exploration of sound, composition and listening practices with the
development and construction of playable sculptures: idiophones. In
organology, the term idiophone (from ídios 'own' and phōneĭn 'to sound')
refers to a group of instruments whose sounding body itself generates
the sound – like a bell or a xylophone.

Both the establishment of a classical musical canon and the forms of
historiography that underlie it are based on mechanisms of distinction.
These mechanisms can also be traced through the marginalisation of
diasporic musical traditions and through collective musical practices
that exist without being fixed by compositions.

On receiving an invitation to exhibit at Halle für Kunst, Nina Emge has
extended the invitation, resulting in the performance project Calmô with
Customs & Borders, Jesse G, Yantan Ministry and Julian Zehnder, which
will take place at Halle für Kunst on the closing weekend, and a
decentralised radio station 17 Days, organised in collaboration with
Timon Essoungou. The sets will be broadcast by different radio stations,
as well as being audible in Halle für Kunst at the time of streaming.
The reused dance floor that has been installed in the Halle für Kunst,
provides the stage for the idiophones, as well as for the programme
organised by the artist in collaboration with Halle für Kunst.

All three parts of the project operate independently of each other and
form networks of exchange between the individuals involved and the
context of Halle für Kunst. The ensemble of (It's never too late to)
Stop, Look & Listen, 17 Days and Calmô conceptualises a collective form
of sound production and listening that departs from the technical
specifications of a formalized approach to music, while simultaneously
constituting a proposal for a decentralised exhibition practice.