Hansjoachim Dietrich
Geräusch­kissen

Parallel to KP Brehmer’s exhibition Trivialgrafik, Galerie Block presented Hansjoachim Dietrich’s first solo exhibition in May 1965 under the title Ereignisbilder. In the double exhibition of the “two great-grandsons of Dada” , as the Tagesspiegel’s feature editor Heinz Ohff wrote, Dietrich mounted banal everyday objects such as light bulbs, doorbell switches, zippers or taps on portrait-format, monochrome canvases, which remain functional or can be used. In this sense, the Geräuschkissen, which appears as an edition in 1968, is also an event object that can be used as a cushion. According to the edition leaflet, the interior of the unsigned white cushion conceals “a loudspeaker with an electronic metronome in front of it. There is a potentiometer on the metronome on which the beat frequency can be adjusted using a screwdriver. It is powered by a 9 V battery equipped with push-button contacts. 40 × 40 cm.” A push-button switch is attached to the outside of one corner of the cushion, with which the cushion can be put into operation. The edition leaflet shows a sleeping child on the cushion and thus makes a concrete suggestion for its use.
Whether the uniformity of the electronic metronome is actually soporific remains to be seen.
Text: Birgit Eusterschulte