Hans Peter Kuhn was born in Kiel in 1952. In 1975, he began his professional career as a sound designer at the Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer in Berlin (now the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz). There he met Robert Wilson, with whom he realised more than 30 plays, videos and installations in the following years. He left the Schaubühne in 1979 to concentrate more and more on his own artistic work. His work primarily includes sound and light installations, radio plays, film music, music and environments for theatre and - since 1989 - also for dance. In 1985, he co-founded Berlin's first private radio station, where he had a weekly programme about new music. In addition to numerous other awards, he received the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1993 together with Robert Wilson for the installation ‘Memory/Loss’. In 2024, he received the Art Prize of the State of Schleswig-Holstein. Since 2012, he has been a visiting professor in the Sound Studies and Sonic Arts masterclass at the Berlin University of the Arts. His light and sound installations are shown by many museums and galleries or exhibited in public places, including Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA., Tokushima Modern Art Museum. Hans Peter Kuhn lives and works in Berlin and Amino, Japan.

More about Hans

It is a work of art with a special aura: from dusk onwards, 29 signs light up in six groups across a width of 160 metres on the grounds of Kiel's Ostuferhafen harbour and are clearly visible from the opposite western bank. The signs each consist of two light sticks arranged at different angles, which make no sense to the untrained observer. In fact, however, they are letters of the waving alphabet, so that the following exclamation can be read after deciphering them: Sailors, remember the sirens. Ahoy!

The light installation, which was erected as public art in Kiel in 2012, is the largest work of art that the city has in public space. The work, which the Kiel-born artist created for his home town, works on different levels and combines various elements. The exclamation, the encryption and also the location allude to the special role of seafaring for the harbour city.

The warning to sailors not to be led astray by the beguiling song of the sirens alludes to Greek mythology and the poet Homer. The waving alphabet, which is used here to transmit the message, was used for ship-to-ship communication before the introduction of radiotelephony. With the help of flags in both hands of a sailor, larger distances could be bridged. Instead of flags, Hans Peter Kuhn uses modern technology in the form of glow sticks. His work of art thus takes the viewer on a mental journey from the ancient Greeks to our modern times.

Note: The power station to the left of the light installation shown in the photos has since been demolished.