_THE PROJECT


"SATELLITES | LABORATORY FOR SOUND AND SOUL" is an internationally oriented, artistic cooperation project, conceived and curated by Beate Gärtner, Julia Priss and Scarlett Schauerte, in which artists from 15 countries participate: - China, England, Egypt, France, India, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and Germany. - 

"SATELLITES | LABORATORY FOR SOUND AND SOUL" aims to question conventional expectations of language as a form of communication through art. How clear can a message be? What are images of speech? How can something be brought up beyond vocabulary and grammar? What resonates in the sound of the mother tongue? Ambiguity and diversity are characteristics of art. Individual creative will, curiosity and an interest in open exchange regardless of national borders or language barriers are the driving forces behind the artistic work. The participants in the project interact on this basis. As digitally networked "satellites", they design thematically structured work platforms, the three so-called "laboratories", in a creative artistic exchange. Each of these laboratories has a different focus. 

Can pictures, standardized symbols such as Emojis, convey clear messages? This is what the "Laboratory Writing" is all about. The sound of the mother tongue with the image of the speaking mouth becomes the starting material for further processing in the "Laboratory Speaking and Hearing". In the "Laboratory Facial Expressions and Gestures" the focus is on the action, the body language as a mediator of non-verbal information.                

Over a period of almost four months, the artists present designed interpretations of specific questions, changing them and responding to suggestions and offers from others. An open process that time puts an end to.

The various developments and results can be followed in the context of their emergence or change on the website of "SATELLITES | LABORATORY FOR SOUND AND SOUL". At the end of the laboratory phase, the results will be exhibited simultaneously in different locations around the world at the end of August 2021. All satellites are connected via live stream.

"SATELLITES | LABORATORY FOR SOUND AND SOUL" is motivated in a positive sense by language skepticism. From the rejection of language power and language violence, from doubts about the term as a valid description of the world, individual artistic interpretations of certain aspects in the context of language are emerging in the laboratories in many forms. Artists from different countries with their respective cultural influences and languages try out a form of universal understanding on the basis of art that does not consist of a linguistically describable or comprehensible message. The phenomenon of language is a subject in art that has to be addressed again and again and which cannot be dealt with exhaustively. This project is about the question: which impulses are picked up, what is initiated, and what is actually left behind? Will a work of art emerge from the sum of all contributions whose special property is to be incomplete?                                                                                                                                                                  

Does the concept of the open form offer an opportunity to overcome barriers and limits in understanding the use of language? What does art promise?  

"SATELLITES | LABORATORY FOR SOUND AND SOUL" is an artistic project whose conception on the topic of language / communication is not only up to date with regard to the integration of modern communication technologies, but also currently due to Corona. Due to the conditions of the pandemic, the subject has experienced an intense emotional boost. 

Milo Köpp

Translation: Ingrid Janicke