[Michael Stoeber]:Maintenance Measures for the SoundUnit Fan and Soundwall? Our collective musée auditive, which archives not only pictures but also sounds, no doubt contains the voice of the radio reporter who was carried away with enthusiasm as he announced the German team's winning goal at the 1954 football World Cup in Bern. That long drawn out »TooorTooorTooor« proclaimed more than just a goal. It stood for the unanticipated resurrection of a nation that was unconditionally defeated in World War II — defeated not only by the Allied military victory, but also by its own complete moral bankruptcy. As sociologists have often enough pointed out, sporting contests and football games are ersatz wars. In this respect, Bern 1954 was a historically significant event, which found its valid acoustic symbol in the German radio reporter's bellowing »Tor«.
Tilman Küntzel's artistic project for »sonambiente« 2006 works with the agonistic energies of the current football World Cup. In Klangwand, he installs 64 footballs like trophies; they are sculptural metonyms that represent all the World Cup games. One hears collaged radio reports from each individual ball in the languages of the respective opposing teams. When the voices are woven into a synchronous, energetic sound tapestry at the end of the championship, both the aggressive battles and the peaceful moments of coexistence will be stored within. Küntzel's installation, which ties auditive, plastic and performative motifs together, is characteristic of the artist's work, which does not permit itself to be restricted by limitations of genre.
The contemplative first part of the Küntzel project is complemented by an interactive second part. The disposition of elements here also references the forces unleased by the football event. Football is critically assessed without being directly mirrored. Küntzel's »Sleeping Tube« offers the visitor, psychically stressed from the competitive battles, a temporary avenue of retreat that characterises the competitions' temperature and temperament at once. Küntzel's »Blood Pressure Measurement Station« refers to the emotional burden the fan is exposed to during the games. And Küntzel's »Defibrillator«, a mobile device for treatment of acute heart attacks, brings even more strongly to mind the worst case scenario of a fan's possible breakdown.
In his project description, the artist calls the disposition of elements in the second part of the installation Maintenance Measures for the SoundUnit "Fan". His gentle irony in labelling the fan as a »SoundUnit« makes his artistic strategy clear. The sounds of the fan's blood pressure, channelled by microphone into the soundspace, and the »Defibrillator's« spoken instructions for an emergency patient combine with excited play-by-plays of the games to form an impressive acoustic collage that spotlights the passions of both players and spectators. With his »soundspace«, Tilman Küntzel manages quite a feat: to synaesthetically illustrate and intensify the thrill and agony of football.