Listening’s Urgency: Hardi Kurda is the 5th Artist in Residence

Com­po­ser and sound artist Har­di Kur­da is the fifth reci­pi­ent of the Radio Art Resi­den­cy scho­l­ar­s­hip. Kur­da stu­di­ed music in Sle­ma­ni, Kur­di­stan Regi­on, Iraq and com­po­si­ti­on in Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny and Gothen­burg, Swe­den. In his per­for­man­ces and com­po­si­ti­ons he uses the radio as an instru­ment to explo­re the fre­quen­cy spec­trum as tonal material.

I was always loo­king for a way to make music and feel free at doing so — in the sen­se that I didn’t want to impo­se a pre­con­cei­ved idea on time, the explo­ra­ti­on of space, or the per­cep­ti­on of the envi­ron­ment. And I found this free­dom in radio, in the fre­quen­ci­es that are free to be lis­tened to and used.

Kur­da will fur­ther explo­re the free­dom in the frequency’s inter­me­di­a­ry tones during his three-mon­th resi­den­cy at Radio CORAX. Under the tit­le Listening’s Urgen­cy he aims to deve­lop a radio prac­ti­ce that will be con­ti­nued in Kur­di­stan-Iraq, whe­re he grew up and foun­ded a fes­ti­val for sound art and expe­ri­men­tal music in 2017, brin­ging artis­tic sound prac­ti­ces into the public sphe­re. For the ope­ning of his resi­den­cy, Har­di Kur­da invi­tes lis­teners to par­ti­ci­pa­te in an inter­ac­ti­ve radio performance:

Through inter­ac­tion, the visi­tors should find or chan­ge dif­fe­rent fre­quen­ci­es through inter­ac­tion. It is important to me that they lis­ten actively, inter­act with each other and make decisi­ons. Becau­se tha­t’s what radio does for me: it brings peop­le into contact.

Opening Performance “listening’s Urgency”

on Weds, March 11, 6.30 pm
at Blech – Raum für Kunst Hal­le / Am Stein­tor 19
& 7 pm on Radio CORAX 95.9

Further reading & listening:

→ Live talk with Har­di Kur­da on Radio CORAX 95.9 and online: Sunday, Febru­a­ry 16, 8 pm

→ Inter­view on the pro­gram maga­zi­ne of Radio CORAX (Ger­man)

Pho­to: Har­di Kur­da, Space 21 Fes­ti­val, Erbil 2019; credits: Gai­lan A. Ismail