Backrooms X Czarnagora: New mural and concert

New mural piece and concert
Rafał Skoczek & Ronja Varonier
Jack Callahan & Jeff Witscher, Jason Kahn
22 September, 9pm

We are pleased to inaugurate a new mural created by artists Rafał Skoczek and Ronja Varonier for the basement of Kunsthalle Zurich. On this occasion we invite you to an experimental music concert by the music duo Jack Callahan & Jeff Witscher and the musician, sound artist and writer Jason Kahn. Additionally, Ronja Varonier will be displaying a new work series.

Rafał Skoczek has exhibited widely, including exhibitions at Stadtgalerie Bern (CH); Kunsthalle Zürich (CH); Kunsthaus Glarus (CH); Shindisi (GE); Centre d’Art Neuchâtel (CH); Diana, Los Angeles (US); Plymouth Rock, Zürich (CH); Les Urbains, Lausanne (CH).

Ronja Varonier is studying Fine Arts in the Bachelor's program at Hochschule der Künste Bern and has exhibited throughout Switzerland, including Chickentown, Zürich (CH) and Stadtgalerie Bern (CH).

The musicians and composers Jack Callahan and Jeff Witscher have worked together since 2018. In late 2020, they founded the music label Flea, under which they have released the recordings ISSUES (What Happens on Earth Stays on Earth) (2022), Stockhausen Syndrome (2021), The Past, Present And Future Of Experimental Music (Uncut GRM) (2020). Callahan’s (aka die Reihe) recent solo records are Tragedy In a Sense Is a Kind of Psychic Flavor of This Loneliness (2020), Karaoke Darmstadt (2020), Vocoder (2018), Housed (2016). Witcher has released under many different names (such as Rene Hell). Recent releases as solo artist are Approximately 1,000 Beers (2018), Fy Monkey Sisaj Kura (2017), Cob Music (2016), Bifurcating a Resounding No! (2014).

Jason Kahn’s work has been presented in various occasions: sound installations were shown in solo and group projects, such as at Oqbo, Berlin (DE); Meridian Space, Beijing (CN); ZHdK, Zürich (CH); Centre d’Art Neuchâtel (CH); Espace Rien, Geneva (CH); Bhuta Gallery / Crafts Museum, Delhi (IN) and many others. Recent record releases by Kahn as solo musician are Days Falling (2021), Infinity Suite (2020), Old and New Ghosts (2020), Lining Out (2019). He is continuously writing and teaching and has composed pieces for theater plays, performances and movies.

The event is a collaboration between Backrooms and the internationally operating label Czarnagora, which makes an important contribution to Zurich's small underground music scene and was co-founded in 2020 by Rafał Skoczek.

Venue: Kunsthalle Zürich, basement
Limmatstrasse 270, 8005 Zurich

Video documentation of the acts on YouTube:
Jason Kahn
Jack Callahan & Jeff Witscher

Image: Rafał Skoczek, 2022