How does a nation define itself through art, film, and literature, and what role can listening play in understanding Germany’s narratives, past and present? These questions—which consider the complex interplay between national and cultural identity—are at the core of Listening to the Art of German Cultures. The installation asks viewers to listen to the stories of nationhood conveyed by the artworks on view. Featuring a selection of paintings, photographs, films, and sculptures spanning over seventy-five years of cultural production in the German-speaking world, the presentation offers insights into the nation’s contemporary culture and global entanglements—revealing the surprising perspectives, unheard voices, and acoustic textures that art can evoke.
The installation begins with an era of rebellion and reinvention from the 1950s to 1970s, during which art—and particularly Valie Export’s Touch Cinema (1968), created through or inspired by sound and acoustic technologies—played a pivotal role in pushing the boundaries of cultural transformation in the German-speaking world. From the 1980s through the 2000s, works such as Harun Farocki’s Images of the World and the Inscription of War (1988) and Ulrike Kuschel’s Kranz (Wreath) (2008) reflect upon the role of cultural memory, its blind spots, and the echoes they find in art created during the period of Germany’s division and subsequent reunification. Meanwhile, Emeka Ogboh’s sound installation The Song of the Germans (2015), installed in the adjacent Video Gallery, reinterprets the German national anthem in ten African languages, illustrating how globalization demands a reevaluation of national identity. Each artwork engages with Germany’s diverse historical threads, political anxieties, and cultural explorations, presenting forms of institutional critique that transcend national boundaries.
Listening to the Art of German Cultures is organized by Sarah Koellner, assistant professor in Comparative Literature and Thought in Arts & Sciences, in conjunction with the spring 2026 course “Radical Listening: Advanced German Language and Culture” and the symposium “Archiving the Sound of German Cultures: A Century of Collection, Curation, and Creative Practice,” March 26–28, 2026.