String Tension History

String Tension History

“String Tension History” is a two-part work by artist Kirstin Burckhardt, consisting of a sound installation and a performance. The sound installation will be on view from September 29 through October 11 in the museum’s specimen hall as part of the permanent exhibition. The performance will take place on October 10 in the museum’s ruined lecture hall.

At the heart of the work is the relationship between the artist and her harp. The harp arrived in Germany on the day World War I broke out and survived both world wars—today it stands at a breaking point.

The instrument is part of the sound installation on display in the permanent exhibition and is intertwined with the artist’s personal history. During the Nazi era, her German great-grandfather signed medical reports authorizing forced sterilizations. The artist herself lost her fertility as a result of a gynecological tumor and endometriosis.

In the performance held in the ruins of the lecture hall, a video depicts the restoration of the harp both visually and acoustically. The artist complements these sounds and sings a lament into the harp’s soundbox. In this way, the artist’s voice merges with the sound of the harp to form a shared song of reconciliation with her family history and her own body.

The harp bears the traces of this process and speaks of vulnerability, memory, and the strength to weather change.



Kirstin Burckhardt (born in South Africa) is a visual artist and psychotherapist who combines video and performance with sound and the spoken word. Engaging critically with her training in psychology and neuroscience, her practice explores power dynamics interwoven with the body. By continually questioning what defines a “body,” her artistic research focuses on the interpersonal space as a site for negotiating conflict, empathy, transgenerational trauma, and the complex processes of healing.



The performance is part of the Global Dystopia Sound Art Biennial 2026. “String Tension History” was co-produced by Mario Asef on commission from the Global Dystopia Sound Art Biennial 2026.

with DeepL

Meeting point: Lecture Hall Ruins

Price: €15.00

Reduced price: €10.00

Next date:

• Date Saturday, 10/October/2026 19:00 bis 20:30
• Venue Charité - Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum
• Address Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin-Mitte