2 Minutes 40 Seconds (2025) | Sound installation

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 <– 

Part of the group exhibition “…and yet we are here.” at Frappant Galerie Hamburg, 15. - 24.08.25.
With Ayse Ates, Alisa Tsybina, Daniel Dominguez Teruel, Nader Hamzeh, Jenni Schurr, Yi-Jou Chuang
Curated by Jenni Schurr

Photos: Ayse Ates, Jenni Schurr