A sonic bike opera that looks beyond the facades of some of Berlin’s buildings and into their history of forced labour during the Nazi regime. It was a collaboration with and commission by Spreehalle and the Dokumentationszentrum NS Zwangsarbeit as part of the launch of their app Human Commodity.
The music was made through a workshop with newly arrived to Berlin teenagers, teachers Margareth Kammerer and Inna Riazanova and Kaffe Matthews, where together they explored and shared dreams and sounds for the future. Then using archived text from forced labourers that trigger as you pass by the locations, Matthews wove and processed these fragmented dichotomies into a whole, mapping them into a new listening composition that unfolds as you ride.
This video is a document recorded from one such ride.
INFO: kaffematthews.net/project/human-commodity-ware-mensch-2022
