KT The Listening Room for Tokyo Design Week
The myths surrounding men creating life on their own always lead to vexed outcomes. God created Adam from mud; Zeus incubated Dionysus in his thigh; Rabbi Judah Loew the Maharal brought Golem to life from clay; Geppetto carved out Pinocchio from wood; and Dr. Frankenstein made his monster from a patchwork of cadavers. None of those men had it easy from that moment on! Each narrative is a story of hubris and how enormous its consequences can be.
Gustav Mahler wrote Kindertotenlieder at a time when he was childless. When his daughter died at age five, he reportedly said that the grief of losing a child went well beyond poetry or music. Kindertotenlieder was Mahler’s great act of hubris and only the impact of losing his own child made him realise how shallow even his wonderful song cycle was in comparison to the grief he felt.
The installation created the perfect solitary listening environment for Kindertotenlieder; a room for the sounds of male hubris.
Architectural design, by Eriko Watanabe & Igor Kebel of XO Projects.
