Nik Nowak
variable cracker
L-Project, Berlin
Oct 28 – Dec 9, 2022
Opening: 27 Oct, 6–9pm
Nik Nowak’s works deal with the use of sound in the form of music as an identity-forming as well as society-building force and mediator of intercultural dialogue, as well as with the misuse and destructive power of sound as a propaganda medium, as a means of musical torture, or as acoustic violence in contemporary wars.
With the installation “variable cracker” Nik Nowak refers to the location of L-Project in several ways. The exhibition space is located in a former recording studio in Prinzenallee in Berlin Wedding. On the ground floor of the commercial building is a car repair shop. The previous tenant was a company specializing in auto turning and sound upgrades. Vehicle tuning is the individual modification of the standardized mass product, the modification of the optical and acoustic design, the body, the engine, the interior, the lighting and the sound system.
At the same time, the showroom is located in the immediate vicinity of the former border crossing Bornholmer Street. Along the Berlin Wall, loudspeaker systems were used on both sides during the Cold War to carry out political propaganda.
Already in his last year’s exhibition “Schizo Sonics” at Kindl – Center for Contemporary Art, Nik Nowak had dealt with acoustic warfare at the inner-German border.