Abbas Zahedi’s sound work ‘Ouranophobia 03127’ will be presented at Kyiv’s Pavilion of Culture on August 20. The sounds for it were recorded on an organ made from the pipes of non-working instruments, including elements of the Rieger-Kloss organ from St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church in Kyiv, which was damaged by a fire in 2021
About Zahedi’s installation and organ
The organ became the central element of the artist’s ‘Ouranophobia 47051’ installation for ‘Manifesta 16 Ruhr’. The instrument was made from the pipes of other, non-working organs collected from various European cities. A special blower supplies the organ with air.
‘Organ pipes are shaped around breath. They exist to speak and formed in a tradition of communal gatherings; of people coming together to be moved by something larger than themselves. That intention does not leave when the instrument is destroyed’, Zahedi explains.
‘Ouranophobia’ in the project’s title refers to the fear of the sky, while ‘47051’ is the postal code of Duisburg, where the installation is housed in a cultural centre.
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About the sound work for the Pavilion of Culture
The artist was provided with pipes from the damaged Rieger-Kloss organ by the National House of Organ and Chamber Music. The pipes are planned to be returned to Kyiv in 2027.
‘This edition of ‘Manifesta’ is titled ‘This Is Not a Church’. It unfolds across The Ruhr, a post-industrial region still learning what community means after generations of loss. To bring these pipes here, from a city living through destruction to a city carrying its own long grief, is not a metaphor. It is literal’, Zahedi says.
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The code 03127 in ‘Ouranophobia 03127’ refers to the postal code of the Pavilion of Culture, while the work itself was created ‘in response to the space of the Pavilion’. The sound within it is slowed down, features reverberation, and is combined into a sound composition that reproduces the artist’s sound archive dedicated to grief.
Zahedi ‘contrasts’ the recorded sound of the new organ with amateur recordings of Kyiv’s Rieger-Kloss organ made before the fire, as well as with his previous works.
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On August 20, Abbas Zahedi will speak with Michael Kurtz, creative mediator for ‘Manifesta 16 Ruhr’, both online and at the Pavilion of Culture. The event starts at 3:00 p.m.
The offline listening session for ‘Ouranophobia 03127’ will take place from 4:30 to 9:00 p.m. Admission is free.
