For three days in late July, the Kiezsalon settles into the Wasserspeicher in Prenzlauer Berg, a historic 19th-century water reservoir. On Friday, 25 July we present legendary percussionist Limpe Fuchs and ceramic sound object sculpter Maika Garnica. The program begins on Thursday, with Jason Kunwar and Jasmine Guffond, finishing on Saturday with Başak Günak and Cerys Hafana.
German percussionist Limpe Fuchs has a decades-long pedigree in improvised music, dating back to the late 1960s. Often performing on self-built instruments and sound sculptures made from metal, wood and stone, her collaborators in recent years have included Evan Parker and Flamingo Creatures. In 2024 she paired with Mark Fell for the triple-LP set Dessogia/Queetch/Fauch, leading The Quietus to write: “The more I listen, the more I hear, with some sections that are quite unlike anything else I have ever heard.”
Based in Antwerp, Maika Garnica makes ceramic sound objects whose spiked and scaled clay forms embody the potential for performance. The Wire said that her creations “suggest a parallel world, presented like a showcase of archaeological findings.” Visualising resonance, she uses air, fluids and granular material to shape their reverberations. The relationship between the environment, the spectator and the artist is central to her practice; each work can shift context between sculpture, utilitarian object and sound installation.
Alongside our live music program, we present artworks by pioneering German sound artist Christina Kubisch and multidisciplinary Berlin-based artist Victoria Alexandrova.
Christina Kubisch, born in Bremen 1948, belongs to the first generation of sound artists. Kubisch’s practice ranges from performances, concerts, to works with video and visual art, but she is best known for her sound installations and electro-acoustic compositions. In her installations she merges audio and visual arts to create multi-sensory experiences for the participants, who are invited to become active as listeners and performers.
Born in Kamchatka, Russia, multidisciplinary artist Victoria Alexandrova led a nomadic life that took her through Argentina and Finland before eventually finding her home in Berlin. At the Wasserspeicher, she will present a piece from her series ‘Ordnung!’, produced by recovering and documenting forgotten, small-scale and often trivial artefacts and their stories. Her reimagining of these found objects encourages a focused examination of the recent German history of tyranny.
The Wasserspeicher in Prenzlauer Berg is a historic underground reservoir, built in 1877 to store and supply water to Berlin’s growing population. Now decommissioned, the site has found new life as a cultural venue, its raw, vaulted architecture boasting unique acoustics and an enigmatic atmosphere.
