Kunsteigene Betrieb (KEB) Deutsche Schallplatten, a fictional activist group, made it its task to make the “dual sound of German music audible and visible.” This was the declared goal already proclaimed by annette hollywood’s film Der grenzenlose Schlagerwettbewerb (2017). The term Kunsteigener Betrieb (KEB) is a reference to the Volkseigener Betrieb (VEB), the legal form for state-owned businesses in the GDR. The main figures of KEB are represented in the installation with masks of deformed singles and a banner and show their BRDDR Schlager, collaged records of pop songs released in West and East Germany. The individual singles with their covers are separated into two parts, the cut follows the course of the former German border. Then the parts of the West and East are reassembled to form a single record. The BRDDR Schlager can be heard with their breaks and unplayable passages as a sound installation of a joint music history in the space. A collection of materials from the press archives of both countries on musicians who left their respective home republic provides an additional insight into German-German music history.
KEB Deutsche Schallplatten
