Spieldose
Sounding Scultpure | Installation(2017)
Runze Feng
Liu Yihui
“Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.“
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Spieldose is a wooden box (100 cm * 120 cm * 100 cm) with a crude xylophone mechanism installed inside. When a viewer turns the handle, beaters will randomly hit different parts of the xylophone, creating a mechanical, ringing sound that may be linked to childhood memories of a musicbox. Yet the roughness of the sound makes it a present experience and thereby connects past and present, personal memory and history.
Spieldose is installed inside the forest nearby the former concentration camp of Buchenwald. When the audience stands in the forest, they may hear birds and other animals calling and moving, the wind swaying the trees and leaves, while also being able to reflect on the past of the former camp. The moment the audience becomes active and decides to play the box, the ringing, comfort and mechanical tones will connect with its acoustic environment, the sound of the forrest and the people visiting.
Spieldose is dedicated as a commemoration to the victims of Buchenwald.