HFBK

Or a performative library of discrete knowledge for voice and Samotryas

Panofsky, Soap, and Underwear is a performative reading and sound work by Absent Institution for the Extended Library of the HFBK Hamburg. Its starting point is an inventory list of things compiled during a performative expedition in 2020.⁠ ⁠This list is understood not as a private travel document or a conventional archive, but as a discrete form of knowledge: books, soap, clothing, food, documents, art-historical printouts, tools, sound equipment, and bodily traces appear side by side as a fragmented library of lived experience.

During the evening, the list is activated as a score. The voice reads a sequence of things, numbers, and descriptions; Samotryas — a self-built electric string instrument made from a branch, a string, nails, stones, and contact microphones — holds a continuous field of vibration and resonance. In this way, a temporary library emerges from voice, sound, things, memory, and attention.