Kay Zhang and Riikka Tauriainen, who have been with us since the beginning of October, unfortunately leaving soon, but you can still catch them tomorrow evening here in aqb’s Nest!
Kay Zhang is a sonic artist who explores around the topics of in-betweenness through sound, performance, curation and research. K, through curatorial and ‘learning by doing’ methods which are entangled with trans-disciplinary art.
K works within various projects and coordinates different platforms and has an interest in intercultural identities, queer feminist theories and sound ecologies. K is dedicated to exploring and engaging the boundaries of sound performance knowledges, curating experiences through sound art (field recordings), collective listening and care practices.
K is a founding member of Kollektiv international Totem (KIT), andrej-zimmermann-zhang trio, The Alchemists’ Bruit and ARKA.
K fosters collaborations from all disciplines, trying to create bridges (in)-between them.
https://zhangkay.com/
In her installations, videos and performances, Riikka Tauriainen is interested in ecology, postcolonial theories and gender issues. She navigates on the boundaries between art and science, between fact and fiction. In the series of works Hydrocommons she deals with hydrological phenomena and with a post-humanist world of ideas, in which she explores to what extent our kinship with other bodies can be understood as a deeply materialistic relationality. Tauriainen is working as a lecturer and mentor at art schools and universities in a transnational context. Among others at Zurich University of the Arts, F+F School of Art and Design Zurich, École de design et haute école d’art du Valais, University of Cologne, University of Potsdam, HGK FHNW Hyperwerk Basel and ETH Zurich, Art and Architecture.
http://www.riikkatauriainen.net/

As a way to say goodbye, Kay and Riikka would like to present a little showing of a recent work called «Ecotone Encounters» which is part of the series of works «Hydrocommons» and is based on the idea of fluidity of bodies and the connectedness of all more-than-human actors.
The video-based installation «Ecotone Encounters» was created at Lake Constance. Riikka researched Ecotones, the transition areas between neighbouring but different ecosystems. While Riikka was focusing on the microcosm of phytoplankton and zooplankton, Kay contributed with a sound composition, mixing field recordings from boats, harbours and diving into an underwater-world of sounds recorded with hydrophones.
Plankton is sensitive to environmental changes and its development is linked to the well-being of all marine organisms. Without them we would not have photosynthesis, without them we would not have oxygen, which makes possible an earth hospitable to humans. They bind 100 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on a daily basis and produce 50% of the oxygen in the air that we breathe. 

Would be happy to see you and share the space at aqb’s Nest on Friday, 6th of January from 5 pm.
Photo credits:
Laura Rodrigues
Kollektiv International Totem
Gunnar Meier
Film credits:

Camera: Riikka Tauriainen
Editor: Laura Rodríguez
Colour correction: Laura Rodríguez
Music: Kay Zhang
Field recordings: Riikka Tauriainen
Sound Design: Kay Zhang
Script: Riikka Tauriainen
Voice-over Riikka Tauriainen and Kay Zhang
Filmed on location at Lake Constance and at
the ISF, Langenargen, Germany
Supported by ZF Art Foundation
Research support by ISF Institute for Lake
Research, LUBW: Brigitte Engesser, Dr. Thorsten
Rennebarth, Dr. Petra Teiber-Sießegger,
Andrea Waldinger, Dr. Martin Wessels, Kirstin
Zang
Special thanks to Landis & Gyr Stiftung