tiles teils

6-Channel Sound Installation, Ceramophone, Audio-Cassette, Live-Performance

Landeskunstausstellung des Saarlandes – SaarArt 2023
„Au rendez-vous des amis“
Museum Schloss Fellenberg, Merzig
June-September 2023

In 2024, the large tile factory of Villeroy & Boch Fliesen GmbH in Merzig, Germany, closed its doors and relocated its entire production to Turkey. Before this happened, I was fortunate to preserve, archive, and work with some of the factory’s tile sounds. I recorded selected V+B tiles in various sizes, constructed a percussion instrument from them (the Ceramophone), and created a six-channel sound installation for Museum Schloss Fellenberg, located just next door to the factory. In the installation, the tiles hum a final farewell song to their place of origin, as the surrounding industrial and cultural landscape shifts dramatically. As part of the exhibition openiung I performed with my Ceramophone.

Accompanying the exhibition, an audio-cassette was released featuring a stereo mix of the 6-channel installation, along with additional performance documentation, analogue synths, and text-to-speech poems. Preserved on the not-yet-extinct medium of the audiocassette, the tiles’ voices linger a little longer, before the cassette itself, too, fades from the cultural landscape.

Commissioned by SaarArt 2023.
With the kind support of Villeroy&Boch Fliesen GmbH, Merzig.

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The cassette can be purchased via e-mail (contact[at]peterstrickmann.info) or/and streamed and purchased via Bandcamp: peterstrickmann.bandcamp.com

Peter Strickmann – tiles teils
C-26 ferro-tape cassette

coming in a Kraftpaper slipcase
Stamp printed cover
Hand numbered edition of 100
7,-€ (plus shipping)

Ceramophone, recordings and mix: Peter Strickmann
Text to speech: NaturalReader
Mastering: Leo Kwandt
Dubbing: Shell Tapes, Leipzig
Graphics and Layout: Peter Strickmann
Font: Silka, by atipo