…mission

 radio sound system / interactive sound sculpture

Kunsthaus Graz 28.02. – 24.08.2025

The mobile radio sound system …mission responds to the ratio of wounded to killed in modern warfare, which ranges from 3:1 to 10:1. Alongside the silent toll of survival, the country at war requires up to ten times as many wheelchairs and crutches to keep moving. The latest iteration of the radio sound system draws on the fundamental questions of radio transmission: Who transmits what to whom? What is the transmission? Why is something transmitted? and uses the project to specifically question the present: What is the …mission of war? Leaving space for other meanings to emerge, the artist reminds us that radio is an emergency medium: when all other channels of communication are silent and no longer work, social organisms re-emerge through radio. Just as radio provides space for unheard voices, Kats explores listening as a social and generative force that reflects the conditions of politics, culture and spirit in times of war and conflict. 

As an art object that invites a participatory dimension, the radio sound system takes a critical look at the phenomenon of voice and community building and perforates the inviolability of power relations between sender and receiver. The object can leave the exhibition space and will be activated by the art mediators of the Kunsthaus Graz together with local communities and networks. The existing sound piece Kyiv 324 by Anton Kats, an acoustic psychogeography of radio broadcasts, architecture, traffic, nature and war from Kyiv, will be continuously expanded to include the recordings made in Graz to create a collective sound experience. 

Curated by: Zdenka Badovinac

Co-curated by: Martin Grabner

Production: Anton Kats with technical support of Richard Gabriel Gersch 

Foto documentation: Martin Grabner and N. Lackner

Commissioned by Kunsthaus Graz