The project Soliloquy with Ape examines the border between human and animal. In several manifestations, a fictional conversation between a historical object and a literary figure unfolds. The historical object, named «The Nondescript», dates back to 1828 and is a stuffed monkey, shaped to appear human – as if being the final «missing link» between apes and humans. A text developed in reaction to this object, addressing and questioning it, is contrasted with fragments from the book The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett, a novel which circles around the dissolution of the narrating subject.
In the soundwork, these differing perspectives – me, «The Nondescript» and The Unnamable – start conversations; all texts however are spoken or sung by the same voice, my voice. The work thus oscillates between a monologue, a soliloquy and a dialogue. This effect is enhanced by the spatialization of the voices: they are at once omnipresent, but also wandering through space, or spatially disintegrating. Additional noises and soundscapes, like tearing paper or adhesive tape, remind us of the process of taxidermy; glottal beats and breathing noises convey speechlessness; a recurring menacing bass humming in the back evokes associations of wild animals; squeaking glass and dull knockings create a simultaneously hollow and empty spatiality that conveys both expanse and confinement.
The production of the work was made possible by a grant from the Stiftung Kunstfond.
Karl Sczuka Research Scholarship in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut.
The aim of the research grant, which is endowed with 5,000 euros, is to support the research phase for international radio art projects, which is often only possible under rudimentary conditions. It offers the possibility of a research stay in a non-German-speaking country.
About the author
Katharina Zimmerhackl born 1983, is an artist, author and graphic designer living in Leipzig. Her artistic practice moves between sound art and graphic design/drawing, with a focus on working with language. She studied media art, printmaking and graphic design at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig and the Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki and was an Artistic Researcher at the Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht in 2014/15.
Her first longer sound piece Die Verwechslung der Freiheit ran in 2022 in the sound art program of Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In addition to residency fellowships at the Studio for Electroacoustic Music of the Akademie der Künste Berlin or at the Atelier Salzamt Linz, she was nominated for the Kunstpreis junger westen in 2017. Recent exhibitions, readings or performances at: Moscow MOMA, Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel, Kunsthal Ghent, Scriptings Berlin, and numerous artistic off-spaces.
In addition to her artistic practice, since 2010 she has been part of the magazine project outside the box – Zeitschrift für feministische Gesellschaftskritik, as an editor and graphic designer
