When musicians modify their pianos, they open up a whole world of musical possibilities. With a five-day program of piano-based explorations, the KW gallery is celebrating just this. The highlight: 24 “prepared pianos” taken from Italian patron Francesco Conz’s (1935-2010) Archivio Conz collection of avant-garde artworks. The instruments are “prepared” by placing objects between or on the strings, and the exhibition is a testament to the musicians who have experimented with their keys and strings through the ages. These visual displays challenge the idea of the piano as the tool of the privileged virtuoso, and bring together works from major avant-garde artists including Ay-O, Dorothy Iannone, Carolee Schneemann, Nam June Paik, as well as Ben Patterson, whose piano – that most staid of instruments – is turned into a tropical wonder with a whole array of exotic plants. Alongside the exhibited pianos is a series of music and visual performances. Our tip: grab a ticket for Charlemagne Palestine’s show, featuring his minimalist synth and organ sounds. (Text: Benji Haughton / Photos: Courtesy of Archivio Conz)

KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststr.69, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
Pause: Broken Sound/Remote Music. Prepared pianos from the Archivio Conz collection. 16.–19.01.2020
Concert from Charlemagne Palestine, 17.01.2020, 20h30. Tickets at the KW box office.
@kwinstitutefcontemporaryart

Can the way we speak have a direct impact on our lives? According to Lawrence Abu Hamdan, the answer is yes: in his multilayered audiovisual installations, the British-Lebanese artist visualizes not only sound and the structural elements of language, but its political potential. His solo exhibition “The Voice Before the Law” at Hamburger Bahnhof shows how language is central to prejudice and discrimination. Language itself becomes evidence in the photo series “Disputed Utterance”: the term refers to criminal cases in which the accused are convicted solely on the basis of sound recordings that are hard to understand or ambiguous. The video work “This whole time there were no landmines” uses mobile phone footage of a 2011 confrontation between the Israeli military and Palestinian demonstrators in the Golan Heights. Eight monitors mounted along a narrow corridor reconstruct the acoustic phenomena of the site, ultimately rendering emotionality through immersiveness and the visualization of unheard voices – an exceptional approach that must be seen if not heard. (Text: Hanna Komornitzyk / Photos: Maureen Paley & Staatliche Museen zu Berlin & Lawrence Abu Hamdan)

Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Invalidenstr. 50–51, 10557 Berlin–Moabit; map
Lawrence Abu Hamdan: The Voice Before the Law: 26.10.2019–09.02.2020
Tue–Fri 10–18h (Thu until 20h), Sat–Sun 11–18h
@lawrenceabuhamdan

They are oddly still, the fleeting moments captured by Chinese photographer Ren Hang. Arranged like strange props, naked bodies of young men and women emanate a fragility surpassed only by the poetry of their visual language. Dramatic use of flash and strong contrasts – black, white, dark blue-green, bright red – create unbearable melancholy, while the presence of animals and yoga-like poses adds a playful note. In 2017, at the age of 29, the artist took his own life. Now, C/O Berlin is dedicating the first big retrospective in Germany to Hang, showing over 150 recent photographs. Although Hang’s oeuvre is strongly rooted in China, where he is one of the most important contemporary photographers, his portrayal of a lost young generation goes beyond time and place. At the close of the year, the C/O brings us yet another exceptional exhibition that will reverberate into 2020. (Text: Hanna Komornitzyk / Photos: © 2012, 2015, 2016 Ren Hang. Courtesy Estate of Ren Hang and Stieglitz 19, Antwerpen)

C/O Berlin, Hardenbergstr.22–24, 10623 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map
Love, Ren Hang: 07.12.2019–29.02.2020
Daily 11–20h
Opening: Friday 06.12.2019, 19h
@coberlin