Cultural Spaces at Zwitschermaschine, Berlin

Friday, 4th August 2023

Cultural Spaces - Shiraz - Tehran - Isfahan

Cultural Spaces is a roll-over nomad installation project. It started in 2015 in The Hague with a commission from the Nutshuis to create a large-scale installation through the entire building. Leonie recorded six places in The Hague, from the harbour to the Grote Kerk, and created intricate portraits out of these field recordings, each to be installed in a different room of the Nutshuis. These pieces were invited to Limited Access Festival in Tehran and Isfahan, where she recorded the material for the next instalment. The collage works of Tehran and Isfahan then traveled to India to the Story of Space Festival, where she recorded new material for the next installation, and so the story goes… Apart from the residencies during which Leonie used her stay to record new material, the pieces have been displayed among other places at the Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofîa in Madrid, the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kerala. The compositions have been played on radio stations world-wide, and have been released through Musica Dispersa, Biodiversitá Records, and Noise à Noise Label. The tape-edition of Tehrsfahan has been physically archived in the British Library. The last station that Cultural Spaces visited was Shiraz. And rather than traveling on the pandemic hit and brought everything to a screeching halt. 2023 is allowing us a fresh start, and the magical sounds of Shiraz are finally being composed into an installation piece that will be premiered at the iconic Zwitschermaschine this August. Tehran and Isfahan will join them for a more complete sonic experience. …and…what kind of sounds will Leonie find in Berlin, and where will they travel to?