The invitation by Kunstradio to produce a series of shows raised the question of a common denominator that could tie the pieces together.

It was suggested to hold a production meeting for Radia artists to share the initial impulse for the creation of the shows. As a location for this meeting Radia managed to secure one of the most imposing exhibition spaces in Europe, the Gasometer in Oberhausen. With a height of 117 meters and a diameter of 68 meters it boasts one of the most extreme acoustics of any public building, with ample of natural reverb and delay.

Eight artists from five countries spent two nights and one day in and around the giant steel cylinder and began to incubate their ideas which were subsequently finalized in their own studios. Radio art is, in this instance, a function of space.

The second part in the series is a work produced by Sarah Washington and entitled “100 Words Per Metre”:

“A dialogue occurs that empties itself into the booming darkness; freely associated text that speaks about the function of words, how they delight and frustrate. Sentences cascade down out of sight whilst others rise up and strive to reach them – in-between lies the mysterious space of their meeting. Two artists interrogate the integrity of words by propelling their voices from top to bottom and bottom to top of the vast metal cylinder of the Gasometer Oberhausen. Conversation ebbs and flows where sense overlaps, where voices merge into the overwhelming reverberation of the building or are lost to storm water streaming down through the towering gloom. Interwoven with this expansive and elongated dialogue is an opposition: the intimate personal musings of artists on the subject of Radio Art. What is Radio Art? Where can you find it? And in the end, can words help us at all?”

Producer: Sarah Washington
Text and voices:  Sarah Washington und Dinah Bird
Recordings:Dinah Bird und Knut Aufermann
Additional voices: International Radio Artists
Languages: English and German