This sound installation revolves around an extraordinary audio recording lasting 02:40min. It was recorded on May 26, 2025, in Gaza. A group of young people sings a cover of “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen). Amidst a genocide, they create a brief moment of peace – the singing of these young voices is delicate yet powerful, warm, loving, hopeful, and comforting. They are accompanied by Ahmed Muin on guitar. During the expulsions, he founded “Gaza Birds Singing,” a musical support group. Together with his colleagues, he sings and plays for children and young people and teaches them to play various musical instruments.

I juxtapose the singing with everyday sounds from Hamburg. Positioned in a row, three smartphones play these Hamburg-sounds at low volume, creating a background hum that fills the room with a strange tension. The fourth smartphone in the row is connected to a pair of headphones, through which the singing can be heard in isolation, as described above.

The austere, almost technocratic arrangement of the installation stands in stark contrast to the emotional voices of the young people from Gaza. As the flashlights from the smartphones dazzle the eyes when sitting down, I also turn the gaze toward us, the viewers in Germany: we have been following the complete destruction of Gaza on our smartphones. The four lights illuminate the darkened room all at once, and when viewed from a distance, they almost seem like glimmers of hope in a jaded world.

Listen –> “Hallelujah“ by Gaza Bird Singers <– 

The ruins of Heidelberg – non plus ultra! – an incomparable idyll of German romanticism.

Tourists admire the ruins, pigeons inhabit them. Both tourists and pigeons are magnetically attracted to these ruins, the eternal postcard motifs of Heidelberg, the infinitely beautiful selfie spot. Pigeons follow their instincts, tourists follow Google Maps. Pigeons bring droppings, tourists bring money.

This  performance in public space encircles the question Where is (my) space? and explores themes such as German identity, social belonging and division. BELLA! NON PLUS ULTRA! views human civilization through the mask of a pigeon. Pigeons largely lead an ostracized existence in western societies and are unwanted, displaced creatures.

The performance connected Heidelberg's tourist mile with BELLA PARK. An impetuous place that is not intended to be a tourist attraction. On the contrary. Far away from the tourist hotspot of Heidelberg's old town, some people would prefer it to disappear, along with all those people who are not intended to be part of the romantic postcard image of Heidelberg. Accompanied by musical interventions, a.o. a choir, an eight-meter-tall, green inflatable pigeon was carried in procession from the Heidelberg's old town to BELLA PARK – posing selfie-like from one postcard motif to the next.

Watch –> Video excerpt <– (vimeo)