Ursula Block is a pivotal figure in the history of experimental sound culture. When she opened gelbe MUSIK in Berlin-Schöneberg in 1981, she created a space that was part record shop, part gallery, and part archive — dedicated to the expanding field of sound as art. For more than three decades (1981–2014), she collected and presented artists’ records, sound works, and editions that redefined the vinyl record as a medium of artistic expression.

Her program included works by John Cage, Nam June Paik, Joseph Beuys, Henning Christiansen, A.R. Penck, Konrad Schnitzler, Dieter Schnebel, Akio Suzuki, and many others. Together with art historian Michael Glasmeier, she developed the seminal project Broken Music, first shown in Berlin in 1989 and still regarded as a cornerstone in the history of artists’ records.

Through Edition Block and gelbe MUSIK, Block established a vital node in the international network of sound art. Her collection, acquired by the Nationalgalerie in 2019, embodies four decades of radical, cross-disciplinary experimentation at the intersection of music, conceptual art, and Fluxus.

For this event Ursula will bring a few LPs of her private collection to Hansabibliothek and we will collectively listen to them.

Playlist:
Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee - Joseph Beuys / Henning Christiansen
JA as long as I can - A K Dolven / John Giorno
Indeterminacy - John Cage / David Tudor
I am sitting in a room - Alvin Lucier
Oh Superman - Laurie Anderson
Closed Circuits - Laurie Anderson
Footsteps - Christian Marclay
Johann Strauss aus Mores Encores - Christian Marclay
The Labyrinth scored for the purrs of 11 different cats - Terry Fox
Interview with a Cat - Marcel Broodthaers
Voice Tracks - Carles Santos
Weekend - Walter Ruttmann
Bananen - Valie Export / Monsti (Ingrid) Wiener
Broken Music - Milan Knizak
dé-coll/age musik - Wolf Vostell
Konzert für 12 Traktoren - Sven Åke Johansson
Automatic Writing - Robert Ashley