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RheinKlänge (Fluid Landscapes) 2013

Christina Kubisch’s sound installation is the final project in her residency exploring sound art and landscape in the city of Bonn. The starting point for her two-part piece for bonn hoeren – a project of the Beethovenstiftung - is the discrepancy between the visual and acoustic perceptions of the Rhine: on the one hand the idyllic view of the Rhine landscape, and on the other the river’s noisy crossings and continuous shipping traffic.

rheinklänge combines both aspects of the soundscape of the river, above and below the surface of the water. On the right Beuel bank, composed sounds amplify and transform the resonant space under the Südbrücke (South Bridge). Two sound worlds collide here: sounds that are already present and filtered by the bridge itself, and additional pre-recorded, somehow romantic, sounds that occur sporadically and are amplified through a series of three loudspeakers located beneath the bridge.

On the opposite bank of the Rhine, next to the Bundeshaus boat landing station, hydrophones relay a live transmission of the underwater sounds of the river. Suddenly, like an echo, sounds emerge here that are similar to the ones occurring in the installation on the other bank, only to disappear again.

The ear and the eye encounter unfamiliar connections that alter and expand the perception of the landscape.

Like all of the sound installations by Bonn's previous city sound artists, rheinklänge will be on display in Bonn for at least one year.

The Locations of the sound installations are:

I On the left bank of the Rhine: at the former Bundeshaus boat landing station, (near the “Langer Eugen” building)

II On the right bank of the Rhine: under the Konrad-Adenauer-Brücke, (Südbrücke), Beuel-Ramersdorf