The Economy of Guilt (2010) | Audio-Installation
Collective responsibility, collective guilt, and collective absolution are fundamental mechanisms within many social, political, and economic systems. Made in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, the work poses a simple but unresolved question: Who is to blame when everyone is apparently responsible?
Created in collaboration with Adrian Sievering, the installation comprises a grid of sixteen loudspeakers. Each speaker emits a single voice that, together with the others, forms a collective chorus recounting an abstract sense of guilt through a fictional litany.
Over the course, the voices repeat variations of a standardised text, shifting between moments of collective unison and passages of fragmentation, chaos, and individuality. These changing dynamics gradually dissolve the anonymity of the individual voices, inviting viewers to identify with the collective. The ritualistic cadence exerts a subtle fascination, drawing the listener into participation. Through relentless repetition and standardisation, personal guilt is reduced to formula, gradually emptying the concept of its meaning.
Exhibitions
Klang im Namen des Raumes, Im Namen des Raumes, Berlin
18 July – 29 August 2010
Resonanzen – Festival für Hörkunst (Sound Festival), Tapetenwerk, Leipzig
15–18 April 2010
Rundgang HGB, Leipzig
18–21 February 2010
[The video below is composed of short excerpts from the full 24-minute audio installation]
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