BOOK:Admir Jahic & Comenius Roethlisberger – MUSIC, A Conversation Through Song Titles

The artist duo Admir Jahic and Comenius Roethlisberger have invented a kind of ping-pong game with song titles, initially just for themselves. They have gradually widened the circle and have started a conversation with artists all over the world. The result of this project, entitled “MUSIC – A Conversation Through Song Titles”. The “conversations through song titles” started in 2017 when the artist duo began to write down song titles on an empty sheet of paper taking turns asking each other for another track as an answer to the previous one. The resulting dialogues sounded at times poetic, dadaistic, melancholic or even humorous. During this process, the idea was born to compile a handwritten collection of song titles, selected and written by various artists, and to create a kind of “encyclopaedia of artists’ handwriting”. The result is a collection of over 80 conversations that are shown as handwritten originals and fifteen neon installations. Among the contributors are young artists straight from art school and well-known figures like Albert Oehlen, Judith Bernstein, Alicja Kwade, Richard Deacon, Jeppe Hein, Superflex, Ryan Gander, Roger Ballen, Pedro Reyes, Claudia Comte, Subodh Gupta, Erwin Wurm, Jonathan Monk, Silvia Bächli, Tobias Rehberger and Gregor Hildebrandt. Although the studio of Gerhard Richter, who just wanted to focus on his own work, declined to take part, they sent a friendly note with his good wishes for the book project. Download the book here. -Dimitris Lempesis