String Tension History

• The sound installation will be on display as part of the permanent exhibition in the museum’s preparatory room from 29 September to 11 October.

• The performance will take place on 10 October in the museum’s ruined lecture theatre.

At the heart of the work lies the relationship between the artist and her harp. The harp arrived in Germany on the day the First World War broke out and survived both world wars – today it stands at a breaking point.

The instrument forms part of the sound installation on display in the permanent exhibition and is linked to the artist’s personal history. Her German great-grandfather signed expert reports authorising forced sterilisations during the Nazi era. The artist herself lost her fertility as a result of a gynaecological tumour and endometriosis.

In the performance held in the ruins of the lecture theatre, a video depicts the restoration of the harp both visually and acoustically.

The artist complements these sounds by singing a lament into the harp’s sound box. In this way, the artist’s voice merges with the sound of the harp to form a shared song of reconciliation with her family history and her own body.

The harp bears the traces of this process and speaks of vulnerability, memory and the strength to weather change.

Kirstin Burckhardt (born in South Africa) is a visual artist and psychotherapist who combines video and performance with sound and the spoken word. Engaging critically with her training in psychology and neuroscience, her practice explores power dynamics interwoven with the body. By continually questioning what defines a ‘body’, her artistic research focuses on the interpersonal space as a site for the negotiation of conflict, empathy, transgenerational trauma and the complex processes of healing.

The performance is part of the Global Dystopia Sound Art Biennial 2026. “String Tension History” was co-produced by Mario Asef on behalf of the Global Dystopia Sound Art Biennial 2026. /