Carina Pesch (*1983), aka La Pesch, studied Social Anthropology, Political Sciences, and Philosophy in Leipzig and Beirut. She was trained as voice artist by Alexis Krüger, taught how to make radio features by Michael Lissek and Walter Filz, making ”Hörspiele“ (radio plays) she learnt from Eberhard Petschinka and Paul Plamper, sound art she learnt from Antje Vowinckel, Peter Cusack, Chris Watson, Hans Peter Kuhn, Christina Kubisch and others.
Today she works as sound and voice artist, author, director, and curator in the fields of radio, installation, performance, and the walking arts for public broadcasters, museums, international festivals, and cultural institutions. She co-curates GERÄUSCHKULISSE – a forum for all who love good stories and immersive sound worlds. The makers of radio fiction, feature, and sound art are invited to present their work and discuss it with the audience. The NGO has a strong sense for community – in its talk concept and its projects. Since 2016 the three curators also produce own art works as GERÄUSCHKULISSE Kollektiv.
Her solo works show a strong sense for the specific characteristics of phenomena, people, and places. They oscillate between narrative and purely sound-based with strong fascination for the thin borderline between fiction and reality. Often she uses spoken word that transcends sentences and syntax and reaches a pure atmosphere or emotional quality.
She chooses a subjective approach towards individuals and the world, faces them without judgement as a keen-witted observer drifting intuitively and being guided by fascination. She sets in scene encounters and creates contact points in dialogue. Her special interests are personal and social boundaries as well as transcending and blurring them, the confrontation and meeting of different horizons of experience.
She works with high-quality field recordings, voice improvisation, experiments, and interviews. For the representation she relies on cut-up techniques, rhythm, and a structure that reflects the core message. Many of her works have a strong link to environmental and community projects. She draws on traditions like the situationists, acoustic ecology, musique conrète, dada, and sound poetry. Instead of merely showing her findings from the process of creation she wants the audience to experience them. With enthusiasm she experiments with new media and new narrative forms. She is a specialist for spatial and binaural audio in linear compositions and interactive sound projects.
She gives workshops in storytelling, radio, recording, interviewing, soundwalks, and different voice impro techniques for universities, community radios, and cultural institutions.
CV
*1983 Siegen, Germany. Living and working in Leipzig / Germany.
Education
| 2003-2012 | Magister Artium (M.A.) at University of Leipzig Social Anthropology, Political Science, Philosophy |
| 2008 | Field Study Mentawai Islands / Indonesia |
| 2010 | Associate Researcher at Orient Institute Beirut / Lebanon |
Solo Exhibitions / Performances
| 2023 | Follow Me II. Surround Sound Installation. ZiMMT, Leipzig |
| 2022 | Follow Me. Performance Series. House of Culture Dock 4 / documenta15, Kassel |
| 2021 | BLINDer. Performative sound installation. Leipzig |
| 2021 | White Elster – riversssounds. Waterworlding – Reflecting on Multiple Waters. Philipps University Marburg |
| 2020 | Follow Me. 8-channel installation. Field Kitchen Academy, Perleberg |
| 2020 | Follow Me. Live Performance. Phonurgia Nova, Arles |
| 2018 | The Wall. 8-channel sound installation. Audiotalaia, El Polell |
Group Exhibitions / Performances (selection)
| 2024 | Vltava – A State of Recording. Ambisonics Concert. River – A Musical Soirée. ZiMMT, Leipzig |
| 2024 | BLINDer. Performative Installation. Berlin Radio Play Festival. Academy of Arts, Berlin |
| 2024 | Vltava – A State of Recording. First Chapter, Ambisonics Concert. phonon~ Melusines. Národní dům, Ústí nad Labem |
| 2023 | City Fragments. Surround Sound Installation. Dresden State Art Collections / Dreiseithof, Gröditz |
| 2023 | Grey Heron Will Fly. Live Performance. Pohyb___Zvuk____Prostor Festival, Háj ve Slezsku und GERÄUSCHKULISSE, Leipzig |
| 2023 | transPLANTation. Exhibition + Sound Walk. Allgemeiner Konsumverein, Brunswick |
| 2022 | Follow Me. Performance (Premiere). Sonohr Festival, Bern |
| 2021 | BLINDer. Live Radio Performance. Seanaps Festival, Leipzig (with Ana Berkenhoff) |
| 2020 | Poly-Sync. A Collective Radio Performance. Opening of exhibition: Anybody Out There?! 100 Years of Radio in Germany for Kunstraum D21, Leipzig |
| 2020 | Radio Activity. A Bulky Receiver. Interactive installation for exhibition: Anybody Out There?! 100 Years of Radio in Germany, Kunstraum D21, Leipzig |
| 2019 | Walk this Way. Quadrophonic opening, Louis Braille Festival, Leipzig |
| 2019 | Dreamways. Binaural sound installation. ZiXP Festival, Leipzig |
| 2019 | Dreamways. Binaural sound installation. HearSay International Audio Arts Festival, Kilfinan |
| 2019 | Space–We–Space. Binaural live performance. Seanaps Festival, Leipzig |
| 2018 | Chapel Concert. Audiotalaia, El Polell |
| 2018 | Decadència Viva. Site-specific 6-channel installation. Audiotalaia, El Polell |
| 2017 | Nadel-Set:Intro. Sound installation. GRASSI Museum, Leipzig |
Radio / Audio (selection)
| 2023 | Lost Generation?! – A Fever Dream by Carina Pesch and 4 Hunger Strikers. Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk |
| 2022 | K.I.T.A. – The Human Possible. WDR/Deutschlandfunk Kultur (with Antje Vauh) |
| 2021 | Stop & Go. You Are the Public Performance. Rimini Protokoll / Film and Media Foundation NRW |
| 2020 | The Ears May Travel. Field Recording Album |
| 2020 | Serial Loop. An Argumentation Carousel for Contributors. Artistic radio feature. Südwestrundfunk/Deutschlandfunk (with Antje Vauh) |
| 2020 | Dreamways. Binaural radio play. (with Lena Löhr, Martina Weber) |
| 2019 | Space–We–Space. Binaural composition + audio walk. GERÄUSCHKULISSE Kollektiv / Seanaps Festival / Noods Radio / Resonance fm / radia fm (with JD Zazie) |
Grants / Awards
Residencies
| 2024 | Micro Residency for Vltava. ZiMMT, Leipzig |
| 2024 | Residency SPATIAL for Vltava. phonon~ / Löblhof & Artgrund, Staňkovice |
| 2023 | Micro Residency for Follow Me II. ZiMMT, Leipzig |
| 2021 | Sonic Future Residencies #3, Semi Silent, Tescani / Romania |
| 2021 | riversssounds. Digital residency. DZESTRA (Chernivtsi, UA) and SEMI SILENT / Asociaţia Jumătatea plină (Bucharest, RO). Leipzig / Germany |
| 2020 | The Curious Loop, Field Kitchen Academy, Wüsten-Buchholz / Germany |
| 2020 | Master Class La Radio Performée with Alessandro Bosetti, Phonurgia Nova, Arles / France |
| 2019 | CAMP with Chris Watson, Aulus-les-Bains / France |
| 2019 | production residency HearSay Festival, Kilfinan / Ireland |
| 2018 | Audiotalaia Summer Camp, El Polell / Spain |
Press (selection)
| 2023 | Review of Grey Heron Will Fly by Martin Šenkypl in the Ostravan |
| 2021 | Four Questions / Located Sound. Interview by Jez Riley French |
| 2021 | Review of Serial Loop by Susanne Franzmeyer, piqd |
| 2021 | Exhibition Catalogue Anybody Out There?! |
| 2020 | Sound Walks Offer a New Way to Travel in Lockdown, The Guardian |
| 2020 | Review of Radio Activity, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) |
| 2020 | The Visionaries Bringing The Jungle to Your Headphones, The Guardian |
Workshops / Talks / Lectures (selection)
| 2024 | Presentation of own radio plays at Conservatory of Music and Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Leipzig |
| 2021 | Being All Ears. Talk for Norwegian Center for Technology in Music and the Arts (NOTAM) |
| 2021 | Soundwalking for Composers. Workshop for Sound And Music |
| 2021 | Drifting through Sounds and the Outer World, Finding Oneself. Artist talk for Walk·Listen·Create |
| 2020 | Sound Dramaturgy. Lecture for the College for Music and Theater “Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy”, Leipzig |
| 2019 | Sounding Walk. Workshop for Bauhaus University Weimar |
| 2017/18 | Creative Media with Podcasting. Lecture for Leuphana University Lüneburg and Hamburg Media School. |