Christina Kubisch. The Emergence of Sound

For more than five decades, sound artist and composer Christina Kubisch (born in 1948 in Bremen) has been making artworks at the intersection of visual art and music, combining composition, installation, performance, drawing, video, and electronic music. The Emergence of Sound is both the title and guiding theme of this survey exhibition. It presents sound as a phenomenon that is forever being re-formed within the constellation of body, medium, signal, and movement, and that can be experienced in their interactions. Sound is always also an action: it is realised in a dynamic sensory process that links the works on display here.

The Emergence of Sound features a selection of works spanning the period from 1975 to 2026 and offers a comprehensive overview of Kubisch’s groundbreaking contributions to sound art. The exhibition focusses on her early performance works, experiments with electromagnetics, and the participatory approach she takes in her practice.

Since the 1980s, Christina Kubisch has drawn on her technical investigations into electromagnetic induction to create soundscapes that incorporate audience participation into her work. In this way, audience members are able to experience phenomena that otherwise exist beyond the limits of human perception. In this exhibition, Kubisch’s research can be experienced in two new site-specific, interactive works: the expansive installation Kupfergarten (2024/26) and the 98th incarnation of Electrical Walk – a walking tour devised by the artist, which, beginning this summer, will broaden the experiential scope of the exhibition into Aachen’s urban landscape.

Christina Kubisch (born 1948 in Bremen, lives in Berlin) is a pioneer of sound art in German-speaking countries and has received numerous honours, most recently the Giga-Hertz Award from the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) Karlsruhe for her life’s work. Her multimedia works have been shown in exhibitions around the world, including solo exhibitions at the following institutions: Kunsthall Trondheim (2022), Museo de Arte Contemporanea, Porto and Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken (both 2021), Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2018), Bangkok Art and Culture Center (2016), Creative Media Center, Hong Kong (2012), Kunsthalle Bremen (2008), and Massachussets Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams (1997). She has participated in major group exhibitions on sound art, including at the Maxxi Museo, Rome (2024), Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin and Kunsthalle Praha (both 2022), HKW, Berlin and Museum Tinguely, Basel (2018), The Kitchen, New York (2006), ZKM Karlsruhe (2005), and Hayward Gallery, London (2000). Her works have been shown in large-scale international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale (1978, 1980), documenta, Kassel (1988, 2017), and the Sharjah Biennale (2007). They have also been included in international festivals, such as März Musik at the Berliner Festspiele (2024), Biennale Musica, Venice (2023), Ultima, Oslo (2021), and Ars Electronica, Linz (2010).

Curated by Miriam Schmidt

The exhibition is made possible by the support of the Peter und Irene Ludwig Stiftung and the Karin und Uwe Hollweg Stiftung.

Photo: © Christina Kubisch