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Transatlantic Free Trade (2014​/​15)

from Siteworks by Gerald Fiebig

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This piece takes its cue from the controversial free trade agreements TTIP and TISA currently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States. If the agreements are signed, this might pose serious threats to the standards regulating food and pharmaceutical safety and lead to the placing of corporate interest over social, ecological, and cultural concerns. The potentially destructive consequences of so-called ‘free’ transatlantic trade are represented by using one American and one European sound artefact. Both are sent from one stereo channel to the other again and again as a metaphor for being shipped across the Atlantic. The artefacts are quotations from pop songs that used to be successful export commodities in their day: Dancing In The Streets by Martha and the Vandellas, a classic from the Motown label that was also very popular in Europe in the 1960s, and Rock Me Amadeus by Falco, one of the very few European productions ever to reach number one of the US pop charts. The piece uses a sonic metaphor to hint at the fact that transatlantic exchange can also have a downside if primarily dominated by corporate interests: every time the fragments of music travel back and forth, a little piece of them goes silent. Entering through these ‘holes’ in the music is a noise that over time becomes ever more clearly recognisable as the roar of the sea. It is in fact the sound of the Atlantic, recorded in the Azores, about halfway between America and Europe. Thus the work sets up a tension between cultural – and commercial – artefacts with nature.

The installation was made accessible to exhibition visitors through multiple headphones. The listening station was equipped with pens and forms for a petition against the TTIP and TISA agreements, which they could sign during listening.

Thanks are due to Ben Ressel for building the supporting structure for the headphone listening station.

credits

from Siteworks, released March 21, 2021
Große Schwäbische Kunstausstellung group exhibition, H2 – Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst, Augsburg, 2014

Thanks are due to Ben Ressel for building the supporting structure for the headphone listening station.

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gebrauchtemusik Augsburg, Germany

Label für Homerecording und Geräuschpop

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