{"id":8074,"date":"2019-10-18T08:15:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T06:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathis-nitschke.com\/?p=8074"},"modified":"2023-08-03T11:40:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T09:40:17","slug":"small-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathis-nitschke.com\/en\/small-places\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Places"},"content":{"rendered":"

The game of ping-pong can be regarded as a metaphor for many aspects in music production: the interaction between producer and musician(s), the give and take between the musicians themselves, but also the active interplay between the listener and the music.<\/p>\n

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Installation view of RE:ECM at Storage by Hyundai Card, 2019, Photo: Byung-Chul Chun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mathis Nitschke\u2019s piece \u201cSmall Places\u201d presents the\u00a0entire music catalogue ever produced by\u00a0ECM Records<\/a> as a sound installation using this metaphor. On a\u00a0slightly raised stage designed after a ping-pong table the\u00a0visitors sit down and listen to the\u00a0near endless\u00a0stream of ECM music, a total of ca. 1380\u00a0hours (almost two months). Beginning\u00a0with the first ECM album ever produced in 1969, \u201cFree at last\u201d by the\u00a0Mal Waldron Trio, the music\u00a0won\u2019t even stop during closing times of the gallery.<\/p>\n

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On the stage, the visitors sit opposite of each other, looking face to face, only divided by thin gauze. Going back and forth like a ping-pong ball, light changes from music track to music track illuminate alternately the visitors on the one side of the stage, then on the other, each time transforming the listener into a protagonist and vice-versa. The listening visitor becomes the art object.<\/p>\n