A Wonderful World
The Gray Voice Ensemble
Presented by Kinderhook & Caracas
25 AUGUST – 20 OCTOBER 2024
A WONDERFUL WORLD is a journey through an environment of reimagined ruins, forgotten objects, and the life that finds its way up through the cracks. Conjuring an amusement park ride experience, the multifaceted installation leads visitors through soundtracks and scenes accompanied by ghosts of the past, present and future. The immersive trajectory created through the Eierhäuschen uses a playful, labyrinthian structure to generate an experiential discourse around the theme of "wonder”– suggesting questions around what worlds we choose to see and inhabit.
The exhibition revolves around three newly commissioned audio-video works by The Gray Voice Ensemble, directed by composer and creative director Elisabeth Wood. Constructed with footage shot largely within the Spreepark grounds, the videos feature ensemble members and guests performing collectively realized songs amid the zone's abandoned architecture and encroaching plant life. An abstract narrative is built up between the choir’s cast, ranging in ages 6 to 76, dressed in the otherworldly "Wesen" costumes made by designer Kaur Hensel.
The curatorial team Kinderhook & Caracas — artists Sol Calero and Christopher Kline — have planned and constructed the tangible elements of the installation in conversation with the ensemble, inspired by the derelict attractions of the former park, interweaving its various relics into new dimensions of inner- and outer-space. This multi-layered collaboration merges into a site-specific musical piece that can be experienced through the physical installation and its audiovisual elements, as well as through live performances on special dates of the show.