Nik Nowak’s Panzer 2011 transforms a mini dumper into a mobile sound sculpture bristling with loudspeakers. Part tank, part sound system, it embodies the dual role of sound as both cultural transmitter and potential weapon. With its 4000-watt amplifier and militarised aesthetic, Panzer blurs the line between attraction and intimidation, echoing Nowak’s wider investigations into the political and affective power of sonic technologies. Nowak is known for such large-scale mobile sound objects, which he situates at the intersection of music, sculpture, and performance. His practice interrogates how sound shapes identity, how it circulates socially, and how it has been harnessed historically in contexts ranging from Caribbean sound system culture to Cold War propaganda. The fox in Panzer’s installation deepens this inquiry into division and memory. During Berlin’s separation, the Wall split the city’s fox population, forcing them to reproduce in isolation. Over decades, east and west Berlin foxes became distinct species, and even after reunification, they continued to avoid one another. For Nowak, this quiet zoological fact becomes a living metaphor for the persistence of psychological, cultural, and political divides long after the fall of the Wall. In Panzer, military machinery, sonic force, and natural history converge. The work stages an encounter with the ways collective memory and identity remain split, reverberating, and unresolved — even when the structures that produced them appear to be gone.

CTM FESTIVAL 2012