Radiation travels well by radio — fitting, then, that we took background radiation, our book and multimedia project about nuclear obsession, to Radio Industry, the Woltersdorfer Festival für Kunst + Gegenwart (28.8.–10.9.2023).
Frank Diersch had the kindness (or the courage) to invite Sulamith Sallmann and me to present the project on his station — recorded on site in Woltersdorf bei Berlin, September 2023. We talked radiation, history, and why you cannot un-hear a Geiger counter once you have heard one. The book behind it all: Hintergrundstrahlung / Background Radiation — das Künstlerbuch.
The festival itself was a fine beast: interdisciplinary, radio-centric, and hosted in a village that once powered Berlin from the water — the old Woltersdorf power station theme runs deep this year, much like our gig in another power plant, the Dieselkraftwerk in Cottbus. Industry, converted into culture. A pattern, one might say.
Full visual documentation by Sulamith Sallmann, as usual: Festival für Kunst + Gegenwart 2023. Go and listen, if you have the stomach for it.