The Neon Gods They Made

The Neon Gods They Made, is a fragment of lyrics from the song “The Sound of Silence” sung by Simon & Garfunkel. Silence in the metropolis means the comfort of not being overstimulated by the sound. But absolute silence can be also a form of sensory deprivation used to torture people, to break their silence. The meaning of “silence” is differential, not referential. We know it only through the opposite term, which we understand better - the “silence” is a lack of sound, music, noise. As thematized in the Song, social silence comes from indifference, sometimes taboo or collective guilt or even denial, it is an embodiment of the alienation present in postmodern living conditions. In contrast, breaking the silence is a common theme of contemporary liberty movements that ask us to not stay indifferent to the silencing of marginalized voices.

During 48h Neukölln 2024 we would like to present an exhibition “The neon gods they made”, created in curated effort of all our resident artists. We want to meditate on all the aspects of silence in modernity, including discomforting ones. At the same time we fully embrace Wittgensteinian “wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen” - the most significant phenomena of our lives cannot be expressed in words, therefore we will try to express something important in imagery and movement, but in silence.

Our foyer is acting as an art gallery presenting paintings, our garden will host installations, our newly established immersive multimedia venue will teleport visitors into the surreal interactive and exploratory experience. Using paintings, calligraphy, tape art, plotters, epoxy, digital illustrations, installations, performance, code and generative art we want to create an immersive space that thematises the apprehension of silence. Additionally, our resident composer Julie Amouzegar Kim, will develop a unique noise scape spread all over the whole Prachtsaal space, to bind the pieces together.