[2025]
en
On 4 July 1950, Radio Free Europe (RFE) began its first test phase, from Munich. Over the course of ten hours, music was randomly transmitted alongside announcements for regular programming from 14 July 1950. The station broadcast from Munich, Oettingenstraße 67, 1951 - 1995, when it moved to new headquarters in Prague. Gaining on new relevance, the sound-intervention in 2025 in this very place in Munich presented a new construction of one part of own history through language translation and its contextual re-enactement performed in a vector-sound-scape.

sk
Rádio Slobodná Európa (RFE) začalo 4. júla 1950 svoju prvú testovaciu fázu z Mníchova. V priebehu desiatich hodín sa náhodne vysielala hudba spolu s oznámeniami o pravidelnom vysielacom programe od 14. júla 1950. Stanica vysielala z Mníchova, Oettingenstraße 67, v rokoch 1951 - 1995, keď sa presťahovala do nového sídla v Prahe. Naberajúc na novom význame, zvuková intervencia na tomto mieste v 2025 predstuje novú konštrukciu časti vlastnej histórie prostredníctvom jazykového prekladu a jeho kontextuálneho znovuprevedenia tvoreného prostredníctvom vektorového sound-scape.

de
Am 4. Juli 1950 begann Radio Free Europe (RFE) von München aus seine erste Testphase. Zehn Stunden lang wurde nach dem Zufallsprinzip Musik ausgestrahlt, begleitet durch Ankündigungen für den regulären Sendebetrieb ab dem 14. Juli 1950. Der Sender sendete von München, Oettingenstraße 67, 1951 bis 1995, als er in sein neues Hauptquartier in Prag umzog. Gewinnend an neuer Relevanz, die Klangintervention im Jahr 2025 präsentierte an diesem Ort ein Teil einer neuen Konstruktion der eigenen Geschichte durch sprachliche Übersetzung und deren kontextuelle Wiederaufführung in einer Vektoren-Klanglandschaft.

***

During the Cold War, dissidents, artists turned reporters, professionals, and friends were given a platform to share comments, opinions, and news about what was missing from broadcasts in the former Eastern Bloc. Given their difficult position between two ideological powers, they essentially played a crucial role in establishing modern democratic principles in Eastern Europe. The station is perceived as such in the former East since then, and has been marked (for instance in former Czechoslovakia) as symbol of democracy. The intervention in the annex of this broadcasting site reflects the very first test phase as a moment of tension — between the democratic promise and the propagandistic reality of the station. “) vzkazy domů – grüße nach hause.” imagines, through sound and translation, a speculative reunion with this testphase guided by the idea - what slips away is what defines.

From July 7, 2025 until July 14, 2025 a publication in the foyer of the lecture hall presents translations of Czech and Slovak texts from an early RFE broadcast of the Czechoslovak Unit, “Vzkazy domů” (“Messages Home”; 1951 - 1953), and is considered as an extended part of a sound intervention. Through „Messages Home“, refugees in former West sent warnings, reports, or personal greetings back home via the radio. These messages were often misinterpreted as coded anti-regime notes. Receiving such a message could have meant se rious trouble with the state, especially if one was related with an escapee. The „Messages“ were retreived from the archives and now translated into German by the artist herself — into a language learned later in life, through which she seeks access and points of connection in the context of the country she happened to live in, so far. The publication - and the translation - appear very silently, just like the radio broadcast in 1950. The graphic design was done in collaboration with Kai Steinstraesser and Levin Jaensch.

On July 12, 2025, from 10:00 to 20:00, the silence was transformed into noise — into a new vector-space of series of vocal improvisations. These improvisations explore tones that come very close — almost to the point of interference — with the sounds (at times, melodies) found within the rare jamming noise captured in archival Radio Free Europe (RFE) footage. As an officially politically independent institution, yet secretely financed by the CIA until 70´s, RFE was systematically jammed by communist regimes. The improvised singing to these melodies served as training data for small machine learning models (VAEs). In contrast to common big data practice, we worked with small, carefully selected, self-generated data sets that are speculative and defy unambiguity. The resulting vector spaces form the „building blocks“ of the algorithmic composition. The sound installation was developed in collaboration with Vasilii Vikhliaev and kavet production (technical support).

documentation by Ludwig Neumayr.