17 November–22 December 2023, Fragment Gallery, New York

Collaborative exhibition "Ein Brief aus Glas"; invited by Swiss artist Pascale Birchler.
Presented in New York at Fragment Gallery. Press release.

"Ein Brief aus Glas" postcard. Photo by Zara Pfeifer

For the installation, I produced an eight-minute sound piece. The composition is looped, playing continuously in the room through two sound speakers mounted high on the walls.

Ambiances and noises were recorded during the summer of 2023 in New York.
Production, arrangement and mixing took place in Berlin.

Sculpture and vitrine by Pascale Birchler

Photo by Helga Traxler

In the collaborative exhibition "Ein Brief aus Glas", Konstantin Smirnov invites us on an acoustic odyssey: drawing inspiration from Pascale Birchler's work, intimate melodies weave a dual sense of proximity and expansion, as deep humming mono-tunnels pull us into a contemplative drift. In this soundscape, mouth-produced effects make us uncannily aware of our own physicality, while audio snapshots, recorded in New York and taken out of context, add layers of conceptual complexity and confusion. Fragments like these, whether ironic, comical, or tragic—we cannot help but interpret them. "Experiencing music is ultimately a trip", Konstantin says, drawing in the perceiver with a siren call for fears and fantasies. "Eventually, however, one returns." This passage, too, deserves reflection.

— Felix von der Weppen