Marsch, Linie und Vibration

In the darkened nave of the Minorite Church, Vienna-based sound and media artist Karl Salzmann’s installation unfolds as a carefully composed acoustic body. Self-playing marching drums are arranged in a linear formation that functions like a directed corridor, focusing attention on a monumental loudspeaker sculpture positioned in the chancel. Powerful sub-bass frequencies set the drums into motion, their vibrations reverberating throughout the space.

Here, architecture is not merely activated as a site of sound projection but conceived as resonant matter in its own right. The frequencies are calibrated to engage the building in its physical substance: walls begin to vibrate audibly and tangibly, transforming the church itself into a resonant chamber. Traditionally a place of stillness and contemplation, the church is drawn into a state of sustained vibration in which acoustic and bodily perception increasingly converge.

Against a backdrop of escalating global threats, geopolitical tensions, and renewed military mobilization, the installation avoids explicit visual representation. Instead, it permeates the space as an underlying layer of acoustic memory. The towering loudspeaker structure emerges as an overwhelming presence, its sound penetrating every corner of the church and leaving visitors with little possibility of escape.

Curator: Pia Wamsler

Production Manager: Lisi Grand
Technical Director: Ernst Steindl
Electronics and Prototyping: Stefan Maier
Sound Programming: Stefan Brunner
Set-up team: Roman Bauer, Fabian Lang, Michael Huber, David Lang, Stefan Bauer
Sound engineering: Michael Schmidt
Graphic Design: Michael Tripolt-Felch

March is on loan from the collection of the vorarlberg museum.