BROKEN ECHOS – An installation about pain, memory and connection
- andreageipel
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
“BROKEN ECHOS” is my first installation – and it’s special to me in many ways. Since April 2025, I’ve been part of the umraum eV studio collective at the Alte Mu in Kiel. Here, a diverse range of creative minds come together – artists, musicians, designers, people who share spaces and ideas. I was therefore all the more delighted to be able to participate in one of the Listening Sessions – a project organized by umraum eV with the support of the city of Kiel , which brings together artists and DJs to intertwine sound and image, rhythm and space.
Together with Sibbedaiah , a DJ and photographer from Kiel, I created an artwork that is deeply personal to me. It combines two themes that have been particularly intense for me this year: migraine – and the death of my father.
Of pain and legacy
In early 2025, my father died unexpectedly from a brain hemorrhage. The symptoms of such a hemorrhage are so similar to those of a migraine attack that he may not have even noticed it. My father, like my grandmother before him and myself, suffered from migraine. The pain thus runs through our family, and yet each of us dealt with it in a completely different way. I am glad to be growing up in a time when we know more about this condition, when more people talk about it. My father had his own way of coping: He meditated, breathed the pain away, and tried to be stronger than it.
When we went through his belongings after his death, we found a whole box full of hammers . My father was a teacher of physics, mathematics, and computer science, but also a passionate collector and tinkerer - fascinated by geology, mineralogy, and uranium glass. The hammers were tools of his curiosity, or perhaps a sign of a certain absentmindedness.
For me, they were above all a powerful symbol: the invisible hammer that strikes my head during a migraine attack. The rhythmic, droning sound that reverberates in my skull. I traveled to Regensburg, took thirteen of these hammers back to Kiel – and they became the centerpiece of my installation.
The concept of BROKEN ECHOS
In the Alte Mu, these hammers now hang from the ceiling – suspended, menacing. They represent the legacy of migraine, passed down through generations – a common thread of pain, strength, and sensitivity.
The installation is accompanied by a video I created, which visualizes the feeling of stagnation, of falling out of everyday life and society. I work with footage of waves, movement, and superimpositions – for me, a symbol of migraine: the unsettling movement and, at the same time, the stillness during a migraine attack.
Two of my black and red Inktober sketches complement the work. One shows a face held together by a red thread and a needle—fragmented, but not destroyed. The other is an incomplete puzzle with missing pieces—just as in moments when pain fragments thought.
Sibbedaiah 's soundscape frames the installation: an intense, droning, shimmering soundscape that makes the oppressive feeling of a migraine attack audible. We provide hearing protection for noise-sensitive visitors – because that, too, is part of the experience: making visible and tangible what otherwise remains invisible.
A space for connection
With BROKEN ECHOS, I want to create a space where people with and without migraine can meet. A space that fosters understanding, exchange, and empathy. Because migraine is more than pain – it's a part of identity, of perception, of life.
Flyers are available at various locations in Kiel (including Kunstraum B ) and also in the exhibition space. Visitors can write their own thoughts on migraine on the back of these flyers. These slips of paper are then hung around the space, creating a growing picture – a collective echo of experiences, perceptions, and feelings.
Anyone who doesn't have a flyer can download it here as a PDF or fill it out directly on site.
Dates & Location
🗓 November 14, 2025 & November 22, 2025
🕔 every 5–9 pm
📍 Alte Mu, Lorentzendamm 6–8, Kiel (Entrance via Brunswiker Straße – directly next to the Brunswiker Pavilion)
The installation is part of the Listening Sessions series, sponsored by the city of Kiel, and can be wonderfully combined with a visit to the current exhibition They say it is love in the Kunstraum B on the same floor.
BROKEN ECHOS is my attempt to make pain audible, the invisible visible, and silence palpable. Perhaps we will meet there – amidst waves, light, and hammering.
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