Jahic/Roethlisberger: MUSIC – A Conversation Through Song Titles

The Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G has cooperated with the Basel-based artist duo Jahic/Roethlisberger for their latest exhibition. The two conceptual, media and installation artists Admir Jahic and Comenius Roethlisberger will show their latest art and book project called “MUSIC – A Conversation Through Song Titles” from September 9 until November 14 in the exhibition space at KBH.G.

Following the international success of their book project “Artists’ Recipes” the two have again invited national and international artists to participate in a dialogue. They will show over 80 conversations about song titles—always handwritten, sometimes with drawings and fifteen of them with neon installations. The exhibition is accompanied by a diverse programme based around music. The free exhibition catalogue and the complete collection of song titles will be self-published by the artists and released at the opening of the exhibition.

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 15 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. 

Emotional and artistic journey 
It makes sense that Jahic/Roethlisberger turned to music after their successful art and book project “Artists’ Recipes” After all, they not only share art but also a passion for cooking and music—of course they listen to music while working in their studio. Nothing triggers our autobiographic memory more than smells and music. In a split second, we are thrown back into moments, situations and moods that can be decades old. We cannot control our memories, sometimes happy, sometimes nostalgic or even painful. It is exciting and always surprising to see which different emotions are related to individual tracks or song titles. Jahic/Roethlisberger invite us to join this exciting journey with their exhibition and book project “MUSIC – A Conversation Through Song Titles.” The handwritten originals can be purchased in an auction in support of the non-profit organisation “Viva con Agua Schweiz.” 

Openness and independence in the art world 
Asking their preferred artists to participate was a challenge for Admir Jahic and Comenius Roethlisberger. Around a third had already participated in “Artists’ Recipes” but they had to first locate most of the others. They describe their journey from their original idea to its implementation as “We are neither curators nor gallery owners, so some of our requests felt like riding a rollercoaster. We were sometimes stretched to our limits with our second “artist to artist” publication. For such a project, you have to prove yourself, you have to convince others and often be persistent if not stubborn. Maybe we were lucky because as artists we have some leverage when asking other artists. Furthermore, a lot of galleries and curators supported us when contacting the artists.” Their collaborative way of working and often-applied artist to artist method, an open and unpretentious way of working with other members of the art world, proved successful: no competition, without rigid rules but also without the security of a commercial gallery. 

For Raphael Suter, director of Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G, this was another reason for the perfect collaboration: “The open approach of Admir Jahic and Comenius Roethlisberger and their rejection of the purely commercial art establishment fit well with our foundation as we aim to facilitate and promote open access to art with all our projects.” 

Admission and exhibition catalogue are free of charge.