The exhibition Pieces for Works by Danish artist and composer Alexander Brix Tillegreen (born in 1991 in Taarbæk, Denmark; lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin) presents a series of newly commissioned, site-sensitive sound installations and musical works conceived as autonomous artistic works that coexist with selected artworks from the museum’s collection.
Tillegreen’s project explores the connections that emerge when sound engages with visual art and architecture, generating shifting layers of meaning and perception. For Pieces for Works, the artist has developed ten sound works in relation to selected artworks from the collection—ranging from sculptures to works on paper and paintings.
As part of the artistic process, Tillegreen selected the artworks as compositional points of departure. This selection includes works by Auguste Rodin, Rosemarie Trockel, László Moholy-Nagy, Anna Mahler, Francis Bacon, Edvard Munch, Isa Genzken, Édouard Vuillard, and Louise Nevelson.
Rather than illustrating the artworks, the sound works operate as parallel temporal situations that unfold alongside the collection subtly altering how time, attention, and perception unfold within the museum.
The installations are dispersed across different locations of the museum galleries, near each artwork on display. Visitors encounter the sound works in distinct sound zones and as subtle sonic interventions that unfold across the museum— some at the threshold of perception, at other times unfolding as immersive works.
The exhibition opens with a concert in collaboration with the internationally acclaimed, Berlin-based ensemble mosaik, with whom the artist and composer has worked closely on each individual piece. While the complete cycle is presented in its entirety at the opening concert and later as a record release, the installations unfold over time, changing as artworks enter and leave the display.
Tillegreen’s compositions draw on elements from contemporary classical music, psychoacoustic phenomena, voice, field recordings, and experimental instrumentations. Some works engage visual and material characteristics such as texture, spatiality, rhythm, and layering into auditory structures, while others activate suggestive, symbolic, or connotative dimensions through speech, musical references, and performative sound.
Through its integration of sound, architecture, and visual art, Pieces for Works expands the museum’s sensory field and resonates with Mannheim’s designation as a UNESCO City of Music (2014).
The exhibition is kindly supported by
