home about news archive cv publications
Invisible Memorial -
Singing Highway
The present concept creates an invisible monument to German reunification, which is for everyone to experience and understand, arouses emotions and encourages reflection. The place is a 300m long section of highway on a former inner-German border.
Experience
The car is driving a steady speed. As it passes the former border between the two states, the car suddenly sounded the opening bars of the German national anthem - the ex-GDR anthem coming from one direction, the German Federal Republic from the other.
But these are no sounds from the radio or from an external source of noise - the sounds are produced by the car itself. By rolling on the ground fine vibrations are transmitted through the body inside. The former border situation can be experienced acusticcaly.
Autonomy and freedom
With this German-border-experience two aspects - namely music and technique - merge. Pride in the musical tradition and the equally strong self-confidence in the field of automotive lead to a higher unity, in which the two properties are interdependent and fertilize. The issues of German unity and the (re)union, as well as the individual, social and economic freedom are in the concept of this work of art deeply rooted.
Emotion
Instinctively every person is treated at the sounding of the national anthem in an extraordinary state of mind. There must be something important, sublime going on when Haydn's melody "Lied der Deutschen" can be heard. Positive and negative memories are awakened against the onset of the anthem composed by Hanns Eisler. In that moment the driver is aware that he has just run over the former German-German border. The Singing Highway is the invisible monument to German unity.
Fact sheet
Location: Highway section at a former inner-German border (ideally A2-Helmstedt / Marienborn).
Time: Press Preview on the Day of German unity, or on the day before: second / third October.
Technology: For every one lane of roadway coating is applied to the Radrollspuren (each 60cm width) over a length of about 150-200m.
Application of the coating: it will take about 5 days.
Wear: I t can be assumed that the shelf life of 10 years.
Mediation: By instructions street signs, GPS, etc. images and text on the Info Center of the Memorial, National and International PR work, website, social networks
Cost: 150.000 €
Status (Nov 2010): Due to concerns by the Ministry of Transport (BMVBS) the project is on hold.
Artists
Julia Kissina is an artist and writer. She teaches in the area of new media at the University of Art and Design in Karlsruhe. With her photographs and performances she gained international recognition. Kissina received numerous grants and awards, including Jürgen-Ponto-Stiftung, the Gisela and Erwin von Steiner Foundation and the DAAD. Lives in Berlin.
Peter Paul Fischer has been working since 2000 as an independent lighting designer and lighting artist based in Cologne. Previously, he has long been active as an expert on contemporary art in the auction houses Sotheby's London and Lempertz in Cologne. As a studio and project manager at the Frankfurt artist Thomas Emde, he led the late 90s by a number of art-in-construction projects.
Curated and produced by Christian Schoen.
Under the auspices of the Minister of Culture of Saxony-Anhalt Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Olbertz.