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Everyone was there, Björk, Yoko Ono, Sonic Youth and John Cage anyway: gelbe MUSIK, a small record shop founded in 1981 in West Berlin. It was run until 2014 by Ursula Block, who in 1989 organised the legendary exhibition "Broken Music. Artistsʾ Recordworks" in 1989.

KEY VISUAL Broken Music Vol. 2 - 70 Jahre Schallplatten und Soundarbeiten von Künstler*innen
KEY VISUAL Broken Music Vol. 2 - 70 Jahre Schallplatten und Soundarbeiten von Künstler*innen © GettyImages, Foto: Santiago Urquijo

It showed one thing above all: if there is one medium that has reflected the interaction between art and music since the post-war period, it is the record. Artists from Andy Warhol to Raymond Pettibon create iconic covers, Christina Kubisch releases sound for room-filling sound installations and performances or readings from Anne Imhof to Jimmie Durham also make the record tangible for a later audience.

"Broken Music Vol. 2" takes the history of the record in art right up to the present day and shows around 700 records and room-filling sound installations from 70 years of art and music history. 

The exhibition in the Rieckhallen gathers records by Saâdane Afif, Fatima Al Qadiri, Laurie Anderson, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Angela Bulloch, John Cage, Hanne Darboven, John Giorno, Christian Marclay, Meredith Monk, Michaela Melián, Yoko Ono, Carsten Nicolai, Cornelia Schleime, Wolfgang Tillmans and Andy Warhol, among others, on approx. 2,500 sqm. The exhibition is complemented by room-filling sound works such as sound installations by Rolf Julius, Christina Kubisch, Bernhard Leitner and Susan Philipsz as well as videos by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Douglas Gordon. 

Based on the collection's focus on media art, the collection of artists' records by Ursula Block was acquired for Hamburger Bahnhof in 2019 with the help of the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung. Thanks to the support of the Friends of the Nationalgalerie and donations, this collection has been supplemented and updated.

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Additional information
Opening hours: Tue, Wed, Fri 10am - 6pm, Thu 10am - 8pm, Sat + Sun 11am - 6pm
Dates
March 2023
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