Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther – Unter Grund

UnterGrundWEB

CD – Gruen

Unter Grund was presented in 2014 in the context of the NOW/ Parallele Welten festival, in Zollverein, the world heritage site of the German Customs Union. That 26 channel sound installation is now condensed in field recordings captured throughout the Ruhr area, mainly in machine rooms, above or under ground, pumping stations, waterworks, ponds, shaft sumps, cages and spillways – just some of the industrial locations that were the object of Christina Kubisch and Eckehard Güther’s research. The Ruhr area is now one of the largest conurbations in Europe and while this industrial heritage remains intact, it is also one of the places in the world with the highest concentration of museums dedicated to modern art. Ruhr then is a place that exemplifies the changes that are possible through culture, where defunct industrial infrastructures become new cultural stages. It is not surprising that the artists focus here on water (drinking water, water for industrial facilities and water for transportation), because without constant pumping of the groundwater, that region would transform into a vast marshy landscape. The two sound-artists have used contact microphones and hydrophones. Everything is strictly site-specific, with a particular grain given by the alternation and coexistence of natural and industrial sounds, fluidity and strength, underground and explicit, which they have materialized into a rich soundscape, finally unexpected. Unter Grund is released in their Soundscape Series instead in the other series dedicated only to variously combined field recordings.

 

Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther – Unter Grund