Jan St. Werner: Space Synthesis

On May 5, Space Synthesis, the first solo exhibition by artist and composer Jan St. Werner, opens at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. With Space Synthesis, St. Werner, best known as a member of the duo Mouse on Mars, transforms the Kunsthalle into a sound space. The exhibition embarks on a dynamic investigation of human thought about sound by assuming that each of us perceives sounds differently. Between different sound sources and sound- reflecting surfaces, a stage—continuously changing in size and shape—is created. Sounds, shadows, walls, performers, and listeners become part of a moving, multi- perspective scenario. 

Space Synthesis conceives of space not as a static object, but as a multiplicity of perspectives that are intertwined and react to each other. The careful use of light creates an immaterial architecture that intervenes in the space, but can also dynamically change itself. Thus, the space is constantly in motion, in dialogue with the visitors. By intervening in the structural design of the Kunsthalle, resonances are created that make the building speak. 

Dialogue and exchange play a central role in Werner’s investigation of the relationship between sound and space. Only they make it possible to rethink space, sound, senses, and not least ourselves. Space Synthesis is thus also a practice that opposes the notion of history as fixed knowledge, often manifested in monuments and rigid structures. This practice counters singular monumental thinking and static histories with multiple perspectives and a dynamic interdependence of the senses.

For Jan St. Werner, this approach is a logical continuation of his many years of work as a musician and composer. His first solo exhibition is not designed as a retrospective, but was conceived specifically for the spaces of the Kunsthalle. Curator Çağla Ilk is thus continuing a curatorial concept that they established when they took over the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden in 2020 together with Misal Adnan Yıldız. Instead of merely exhibiting art, the Kunsthalle becomes a vivid oeuvre in itself in which art and architecture coalesce in a transdisciplinary manner. 

Space Synthesis is part of Jan St. Werner’s two-year association with Kunsthalle Baden-Baden as house artist. In the form of a two-year tenure, the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden offers four artists the opportunity for artistic research, engagement, and production in a long- term relationship with the city through public space.

On three weekends in May and June, the exhibition will be enhanced by an extensive para-curatorial program with performances and lectures by many artists and theorists.

Weekend Program I : May 6–7
Michael Akstaller, Nina Emge, Gascia Ouzounian, Marcin Pietruszewski, Patricia Reed, Andi Toma

Weekend Program II: May 20–21
Spaint Chords, performance with Jan St. Werner, Michael Akstaller, Elise Ludinard, Rudy Schmidt

Weekend Program III: June 17–18
Performances: Thresholds and Echoes from Louis Chude-Sokei, Percuspection from Jan St. Werner, Dodo NKishi & Tunde Alibaba

Weekend Program IV : July 1–2
Nicole L’Huillier, Jan St. Werner

The exhibition will be accompanied by an LP and a catalogue.

The digital dimension of the exhibition is being developed by Damir Gamulin and Nikola Bojić.

Jan St. Werner is a Berlin-based electronic music artist and composer. Widely known as one half of the electronic music group Mouse on Mars, Werner always seeks a dialogue with the visual arts in his sound works. He defies traditional tuning systems and instead centers his works on bringing together variable elements. Werner has realized sound interventions and exhibitions in art spaces such as the ICA London, documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. In 2021 and 2022, his spatial sound exhibitions were presented at the Kunstbau Lenbachhaus and at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg, as well as at the 6th Ural Biennial.  From 2017 to 2021, Werner was Professor of Interactive Media/Dynamic Acoustic Research at the Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts. Previously, he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in Boston.