Mainz: Muezzin-Bell ringing exhibit

Mainz: Muezzin-Bell ringing exhibit


Loud muezzin calls alternating with bell-ringing puzzled passers-by in Mainz, Germany. The nationally unique sound installation "ON AIR" in the pedestrian area would call for peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Christians, said the Berlin concept artist Mirial Kilali (44).

The increasing resentment against Muslims were the cause for this musical intrusion into public space, she says. The Muezzin call and the bells were sounded by loudspeakers from the room of the St Anthony's Chapel in the center of the city on Friday and Saturday at 10AM, 2PM and 5PM for six minutes.

The reactions of the passers-by couldn't differ more. "That's a horror," said one blond in her 40s, adding that Germany was once a Catholic country. Turkish Yenertürk Asil (52), however, is delighted: "I get goose bumps. This is home, when I hear that." 70-yer old Johanna Demhardt remembers a trip to Singapore: "There I've recently heard that, too. Here in Mainz, it doesn't quite fit."

To make it suit better, the Arab-Nil-Rhein organization, as co-organizer - gave out explanatory leaflets. "The key to peaceful coexistence: respect, understanding, openness, tolerance, trust. You also have this key. It will open up many doors," it says. So what do the people think? The artist Kilali wants to ask, and document their answers.

She liked to explain her motives in detail: The worsening of the emotionally laden discussion on the construction of mosques in Europe, the headscarf issue or the blanket suspicion of terrorism on the one hand - hostility and exclusion of Christians by Muslims in Arab countries on the other hand, are the reason for "On Air". The Arab-Nil-Rhein chairman Samy El Hagrasy says enthusiastically: In our informational evening not so many people come unfortunately. When we go with this art project outside, many more people will be mindful.

Political art out of museums and galleries, involving what people create, is important to Kilali. A year ago she designed in Berlin the 'most beautiful homeless shelter in the world' - with stucco and chandeliers. During the renovation of the old building the residents helped. Two years earlier Kilali rebuilt an emergency shelter in Moscow.

And why now in the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital? Mainz is one of the oldest German diocese, answers Kilali, and its bishop, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, says he's very open for dialog between religions. Last but not least: the Berlin artist, who was baptized Catholic, has been living in Mainz for about ten years.

Naturally, they're officially registered their art project, by the church as well as the municipality, says Kilali. But as for the muezzin calls, nobody knew about it in advance, not even Cardinal Lehmann.

Michael Baunacke, the priest of the St. Anthony Chapel, looks at his old-fashioned pocket watch: On no account will he miss Kilali's interplay of religious symbols. It's not common, but perhaps we should get used to it, that we need a different dialog, he says. It's about shared responsibility and not stirring up public opinion against each other.

Source: Ostsee-Zeitung (German), h/t NRP