Copper is a soft, red-orange pure metal that due to its high conductivity feels every touch impressed on its form across its entire body. It is tough and malleable. In recent years, an abundance of copper ore has been found on the lunar surface, which draws on deeper connections and closer ties between different celestial bodies. Copper plays a supporting role in Monika Stalder’s sound installation that consists of two sound bodies that come together in the BACKROOM of KRONE COURONNE. Three copper records with three different compositions conceived by Monika phase in and out of tune with each other, creating a meditative, rocking motion; to and fro. Above, three piano strings are drawn across the space and their length and tension condition the sound. On the other side of the room a Jura stone grounds a copper cymbal. A moment of release comes with Monika’s activation of this site-specific instrument through plucking and stringing techniques.

SOMA 24/25
Sound is a powerful medium. It’s omnipresent. It has a material-affective power of socio-cultural and political significance. How do you listen? When do you really hear?
In 2024/2025, the BACKROOM accommodates the practice and research of sound artists in the framework of the SOMA series. As a result of a curatorial research that investigates the emancipatory and transformative potential of different listening practices, SOMA invites to listen, linger, vibrate and hear collectively in a shared, plural, response-able and care-full context. The first episode of SOMA welcomes Monika Stalder.

MONIKA STALDER (1981 lives and works in Zurich) Process is a key element in the artist's work. Monika moves fluidly between different media in her practice, from smaller pencil and ink drawings of minimal, geometric forms to large-scale painting, sound and video works. Her works are multi-dimensional, with subtle attention to detail and technique, while drawing the viewer deep into her imaginary universe. She explores alternative realms, countless parallel existences of undiscovered celestial bodies. An endless cosmos internalised in the mind, unrestrained by time and history, gender and origin. Her seemingly perfect, quiet forms have a wild inner life that echoes beneath the linear surface - a movement that she can only control to a certain extent, allowing spontaneity to guide her.