Ich und der Hahn / Me and the Rooster

This […] audiovisual work consists of two sentences and an acoustic part. The lettering is mounted on two opposite walls, a push button is installed under one of the sentences. The self-image of Deutsche Welle and the special location determine its formal design and content: The public area of the passage and casino area is characterised by a high volume of foot traffic as it connects the former government quarter with the Rhine promenade. It is a place of constant comings and goings, and it is precisely here that you see two sentences about coming and going. The sentences play with the viewers and arouse their curiosity. They are “not to worry” and to change their location. Changing reveals a world to them that is “funny” and at the same time strange. When you push the button, you hear a cock crow 30 times – in 30 different languages.
Whyever does it crow so differently?
It is highly unlikely that the rooster’s crowing adapts to the geographical distribution of human languages. It crows as it crows. And yet its crowing is imagined and copied differently in different languages. Only in German does it crow kikeriki, in English it is cock-a-doodle-doo, in Russian kukareku, in Persian gugulli-gugul etc. Thus […] the onomatopoetic formation, the crowing of the cock, represents a symbol of our alterity. Only native speakers of the 30 different departments of Deutsche Welle were asked to record. (Text: Babak Saed)