[2025]
en
On July 4, 1950, Radio Free Europe (RFE) began broadcasting from Munich, where it was based at Oettingenstraße 67 from 1951 to 1995. In 1995, RFE moved its headquarters to Prague (at the invitation of the Czech Republic), from where it continues to broadcast today, and the building at Oettingenstraße 67 was taken over by LMU, specifically by some of the university's research institutes. The sound-intervention 7.-14. July 2025 in the former headquarters in Munich engaged with collective memory that seems to be getting lost — through personal engagement with language and archival footages.

Sound Installation: in collaboration with Vasilii Vikhliaev
9h37min, 8.1 channel mix
Publication Graphic Design: in collaboration with Kai Steinstraesser, Levin Jaensch
88 pages, translated archive footage
Performed at the former headquarters of RFE (currently LMU Institutes), Oettingenstraße 67, Munich 7. - 14. July 2025.

sk
4. júla 1950 začalo Rádio Slobodná Európa (RFE) vysielať z Mníchova, ktoré tu malo od roku 1951 do roku 1995 sídlo na Oettingenstraße 67. V roku 1995 RFE presťahovalo svoje pôsobisko do Prahy (na pozvanie Českej republiky), odkiaľ vysiela dodnes a budovu na Oettingenstraße 67 prevzali výskumné ústavy LMU. Zvuková intervencia 7. – 14. júla 2025 v tejto budove v Mníchove sa zaoberala (ne)pamäťou miesta – prostredníctvom zapojenia osobnej skúsenosti v konfrontácií s archívnym materiálom.

Od 7. júla 2025 do 14. júla 2025 bola vo foyer prednáškovej sály prezentovaná prvá časť zvukovej intervencie – preklady českých a slovenských prepisov správ z raného vysielania RFE česko-slovenskej jednotky – programu „Vzkazy domů“ („Správy domov“; 1951 – 1953). Prostredníctvom programu Vzkazy domů posielali utečenci v bývalom Západnom Nemecku prostredníctvom rádia varovania, správy alebo osobné (anonymizované) pozdravy domov. Tieto boli získané z archívov a teraz preložené do nemčiny mnou samotným, t. j. do jazyka, ktorý som sa naučil neskôr v živote a prostredníctvom ktorého som hľadal prístup – a spoločné črty – k jazykom, v ktorých som sa rozhodol žiť. Publikácia vyšla veľmi ticho, rovnako ako rozhlasové vysielanie v roku 1950 – umiestnením publikácií na stoly vo foyer prístavby bývalého ústredia.

Zvuková inštalácia: v spolupráci s Vasilii Vikhliaev
9h37min, 8.1 mixáž
Grafický dizajn publikácie: v spolupráci s Kai Steinstraesser, Levin Jaensch
88 strán, preložený archívny materiál
Intervencia sa konala v bývalom sídle RFE (v súčasnosti Inštitúty LMU), Oettingenstraße 67, Mníchov, 7.-14. júl 2025.

de
Am 4. Juli 1950 begann Radio Free Europe (RFE) seine erste Testphase von München aus. Die Klangintervention im Juli 2025 an genau diesem Ort in München präsentierte eine Neukonstruktion eines Teils der eigenen Geschichte — durch Sprachübersetzung und eine Vektor-Klanglandschaft.

Klanginstallation: in Zusammenarbeit mit Vasilii Vikhliaev
9h37min, 8.1-Kanal-Mix
Grafikdesign der Publikation: in Zusammenarbeit mit Kai Steinstraesser, Levin Jaensch
88 Seiten, übersetztes Archivmaterial
Aufgeführt im ehemaligen Hauptsitz von RFE (derzeit LMU-Institute), Oettingenstraße 67, München 7.-14. Juli 2025.

***

en
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 presented first part of the sound-intervention — translations of Czech and Slovak transcribed messages from an early RFE broadcast of the Czechoslovak Unit — the programme “Vzkazy domů” (“Messages Home”; 1951 - 1953). Through Messages Home, refugees in former West sent warnings, reports, or personal (anonymized) greetings back home via the radio. These were retreived from the archives and now translated into German by myself, e.g. into a language learned later in life, through which I have sought an access — and commonalities — to the languages I chose to live in. The publication appeared very silently, just like the radio broadcast in 1950 — by placing the publications on the tables in the foyer of the annex of the former headquarters.

On July 12, 2025, from 10:00 to 20:00, took place a 9h37min sound-installation in the lecture hall next to the foyer and strived to portray a display of a reality that has once been lost. Based on the rare jamming noises captured in the archival footage of Radio Free Europe broadcast, a body of vocal improvisations has been developed, which in turn created the training data for the sound-vector-space in the hall. Vocal improvisation to the jamming noise functioned in this manner as a carrier (vector) of information that has been deliberately lost in the past, yet formative of the present.

Photography: Ludwig Neumayr