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One of the pioneers of sound art. At 73, Germany's Christina Kubisch is as unclassifiable as ever. Since 2004, she has been organizing "electronic walks" in cities around the world.
Christina Kubisch likes to call herself a "sound hunter". A musician and researcher, for over fifty years she has been turning objects upside down to find new art forms, new music. Accordionist, violinist and flautist, she first studied painting at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts, before turning to music. In 1974, she joined the Hamburg Academy of Music. At the same time, she played in pop and rock bands: aesthetic choices that caused a scandal at the conservatory, from which she was expelled...
Christina Kubisch distanced herself from so-called "classical" music, following in the footsteps of John Cage, an experimentalist and provocative artist. In her performances, she likes to caricature classical and contemporary music recitals by inventing other ways of playing the flute, for example!
At the end of the 1970s, she was part of the first generation of sound artists: musicians, graphic artists and visual artists who worked with sound and made noise their creative material. Hearing is king... And Christina Kubisch is a bit of a magician: sound sculptures, installations, work with ultraviolet light, electroacoustic compositions, radio works... The field of possibilities is vast, the creativity limitless, and her performances are very clear: for Christina Kubisch, the arts are made to live side by side. Or rather, to mingle! The musician uses every possible sound... even the unheard ones, and systematically involves the audience. Sound is an experience to be lived. The proof is in the Electronic Walks she has been organizing for over 15 years in cities all over the world.
In 2019, the German artist is making a stopover in the French capital, where the public can discover Electrical Walks Paris, a stroll through the public space - in this case, the streets of central Paris - with headphones on and a map of the area in hand, which lets you hear sound waves that are usually imperceptible to the naked ear: Little music from the tramway, store surveillance cameras, supermarket checkouts, bank ATMs, street lighting or even wifi... Fun to behold, but not only: turning your ear towards the inaudible is an out-of-the-ordinary experience. A new way of looking at the urban environment. This interactive sound walk was part of the Inaudible Matters cycle. Sur les seuils de l'inaudible offered by the Gaîté Lyrique. Although the "Electrick Walks" experience has been put on hold due to the pandemic, it will continue to travel. To discover future stopovers, visit the artist's website
An interview with Christina Kubisch on Radio Station Essence in Bordeaux:
Suzanne Gervais
