SOMA 1 — Monika Stalder

Sound is a powerful medium. It’s omnipresent. It has a material-affective power of socio-cultural and political significance. How do you listen? When do you really hear? 

In 2024/2025, the BACKROOM of KRONE COURONNE will accommodate the practice and research of sound artists within the SOMA series. As a result of a curatorial research that investigates the emancipatory and transformative potential of different listening practices, SOMA invites to listen, linger, vibrate and hear collectively in a shared, plural, response-able and care-full context. SOMA borrows Salome Voegelin’s definition of “uncurating” sound, follows Sarah Ahmed’s reading of social relations in “Queer Phenomonology” and learns lessons from Pauliune Oliveiros’ “Quantum Listening”, prompting to move from the somatic, interceptive body to the social body.

The first episode of SOMA welcomes artist Monika Stalder. In her work, Monika Stalder moves fluidly between different media, from large-format paintings to sound and video works. The process itself is a key element for the artist. Monika explores alternative universes, a multitude of parallel existences of undiscovered celestial bodies. An infinite cosmos, anchored in the mind, in which our existence is called into question.