Sonic Island

Hidden in the endless blue, where no map leads, lies an archipelago where art, music and science meet and can be experienced. On Sonic Island, we explore self-built instruments, algorithms and technologies while dancing around palm trees made of cyber scrap that glow in the neon light. 

Framed by light sculptures, installations and the interactive laboratory bar Nuklear Nektar by the artist group RaumZeitPiraten, we invite you to the second weekend of GEHEIMNIS 2 in the rehearsal stage complex of the theater at Ruhrorter Straße 108-110: Discover audiovisual performances by artists, scientists and enthusiastic dilletantes at the interface of digital media!

Friday 14.02

From 7 pm
Supporting program: light sculptures, installations and the interactive laboratory bar Nuklear Nektar.

8 pm
Threads of Decay, Spikes of Reverie

A transmedia performance

Echo Ho tells of growth, decay and transformation - with a single, vibrating string: a San Pedro cactus grew, withered and became something new - a sound instrument that was modified by the artist. With the support of AI-driven narratives and algorithmic patterns, Echo Ho's performance combines the wisdom of the plant with modern ritual culture.

Echo Ho is a Beijing-born, Cologne-based sound artist with an interdisciplinary approach. Her artworks attempt to break and transform the perception of reality.

21:30
Tripods One

Tripods One - Robotic sound performance by Moritz Simon Geist

The sound robots of the techno collective “Sonic Robots” bring together live robotics and electronic dance music and demand nothing less than the liberation of techno from electronics! The sound is generated live by countless robots, making the origin of the individual sounds visible and tangible - almost every secret seems to be revealed... or is it?

Moritz Simon Geist works with sound, robotics and algorithms to herald the future of electronic music. His works have been shown at the Biennale di Venezia, the Philharmonie de Paris and Ars Electronica, among others.

Saturday 15.02.

From 6 pm
Supporting program: light sculptures, installations and the interactive laboratory bar Nuklear Nektar.

7 pm
Premiere: Polyptych of Infamy (UA)

Inspired by the novel Triptych of Infamy by the Colombian writer Pablo Montoya, the performance by the Italian collective Anagoor spans an arc between two works of art from the 16th century: Theodore de Bry's engravings illustrating the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and François Dubois' painting Bartholomew's Night, the most famous depiction of the extermination of the Huguenots by the French Catholics. While de Bry could only bear witness to the Spanish Conquista indirectly, as he never crossed the ocean, Dubois was more than just a witness: he survived the massacre in Paris, the violence of which he did not want to leave a memory.

A multi-layered theatrical narrative puts art in the dock here, no longer just as a spectator, but as a potential accomplice to violence. At the center of the reflection is a moral dilemma: Can art contribute to the abolition of violence? Is it possible to depict evil without spreading it? Can we bear witness to the pain of the victims without having shared it?

The visually powerful, highly musical and internationally acclaimed works of the Italian collective Anagoor have already been performed several times at the Theater an der Ruhr. Pieces such as Germania, Vom Licht and Bromio were created in collaboration with the Theater an der Ruhr.

Afterwards
we invite you to a discussion with the Anagoor team after both performances.

Sunday 16.02.

From 3 pm
Supporting program: light sculptures, installations and the interactive laboratory bar Nuklear Nektar.

From 4 p.m.
The absence of cheese

The strange thing about the hole is the edge

Under the guidance of Monika Rinck and Tina Tonagel, students of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne have investigated the hole as a phenomenon and present the results of the seminar. At the center are 10 pairs of holes and a single hole, accompanied by experimental soundscapes in punch card aesthetics.

An ambient concert with bismuth sounds and crystalline algorithms, spectrographic ciphers, PowerPoint poetry and a music box orchestra can be heard and seen.

Between matter and emptiness, edge and center, the question is raised:

Is the earth a hole in space?

6 p.m.
Play: Polyptych of infamy (UA)

Admission: 10€ day ticket
Location: Ruhrorter Str. 108-110

Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of the New Arts Ruhr funding program