Stellar frequencies

The transcultural excellence project Stellar Frequencies explores the entanglements of space research, politics, and planetary thinking. Its point of departure is the dilapidated “Aragats” space center, once an international site dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life.
The project brings together artists and theorists who renegotiate perspectives on the cosmos through decolonial and experimental approaches. Stellar Frequencies includes residencies, exhibitions in Armenia, Berlin, and Nebra, as well as educational formats, and concludes with a bilingual publication.

Abandoned Telescope in the mountains of Armenia @ Jan-Tage Kühling

About the project

The “Aragats” space center, located in the Armenian mountains, was a key site of Soviet space research in the 1960s and 1970s. Alongside its military functions, it served the exploration of the cosmos and was a pioneer of SETI research. The knowledge produced there was embedded in the context of the “Space Race,” directed from Moscow, while the Armenian periphery functioned as an instrument of imperial power ambitions.

Today, the facilities are abandoned and in decay. They bear witness to transience, while the gaze toward the stars continues to reflect a timeless longing. Precisely today, this perspective is highly relevant: engaging with outer space sharpens our understanding of Earth as a fragile, finite system, reveals global interdependencies, and reframes questions of responsibility, technology, and the future. At the same time, space programs and visions of expansion into space are once again gaining geopolitical and economic significance. In the Anthropocene, reflecting on Earth as an interconnected space becomes central—yet history shows that this perspective can no longer emerge from a power-centered viewpoint, but must be decolonized.

Within the excellence project Stellar Frequencies, international sound artists work on the entanglements of Soviet space research and contemporary theories of the planetary. New artistic positions are developed during a residency in Armenia, accompanied by theoretical contributions.
The results will be presented in exhibitions in Armenia, Berlin, and Nebra, complemented by a publication and mediation formats developed in cooperation with universities to foster knowledge exchange and engage new audiences.

Participating artists

Nelly is an artist, researcher, and activist with extensive involvement in international space organizations. They are considered one of the most prominent voices advocating for a queer and inclusive understanding of space, the future, and technology. Their initiatives include the founding of the International Space Orchestra as well as the London Interdisciplinary University of the Underground. In addition, they hold various institutional roles, including positions at the International Astronautical Federation and the SETI Institute, where they founded the Experiences Department and the Decolonial Practices Session. Nelly regularly lead cultural initiatives in the International Space Station, where most recently they sent pomegranates seeds as a part of an astrobotanic project.

Nelly Ben-Hayoun Stepanian
Andrius Arutiunian is an Armenian-Lithuanian artist and composer who lives and works between The Hague and Paris. In his interdisciplinary practice - encompassing installation, sound, film, and sculpture - Arutiunian explores hybrid forms of listening, vernacular knowledge, and contemporary cosmologies. His work has been presented, among others, at the Venice Biennale and at the Hermès Foundation in Tokyo; he was also a DAAD fellow in 2023.

Andrius Arutiunian
Başak Günak is a sound artist and composer who is also internationally known in the field of electronic music under the name AH! KOSMOS. She has performed at numerous venues and festivals, including the Barbican (UK), Sónar Barcelona, the CTM Festival in Berlin, the Berliner Festspiele, the Venice Electro Festival, the Tokyo Electronic Music of Arts Festival, ZKM Karlsruhe, and the ARENA Theater Festival Nuremberg.

Ah Kosmos
Varoujan Chetirian is an Armenian-Swiss sound artist and curator based in Berlin. His projects often emerge from intensive field research and include artistic residencies, site-specific works, as well as a focus on field recordings. Since 2024, Chetirian has founded and directed the NOPA Festival in Yerevan, which annually brings together over 50 artists and researchers for a program of sound installations, workshops, performances, club nights, sound walks, and conferences.
Varoujan Chetirian co-initiated Stellar Frequencies, is co-curator of the project, and is responsible for its sound art exhibition.

Varoujan Chetirian
Sheree Domingo is a comic artist, illustrator, and visual facilitator. She works on fictional and (auto)biographical graphic novels as well as in science communication, visual recording, and for various media. Her debut Ferngespräch (2019) was awarded the Grimmelshausen Förderpreis in 2021. This was followed in 2022 by Madame Choi and the Monsters, which received the Comic Book Prize of the Berthold Leibinger Foundation.
As part of Stellar Frequencies, Sheree will graphically document the scientific and artistic research processes and contribute to mediating the project’s content with young people and students in Armenia.

Sheree Domingo
Jens Klimek is a German composer and choral conductor with a focus on choral music. His works for choir - often a cappella - are performed internationally and are characterized by a contemporary sound language combined with strong singability. He has received significant recognition through numerous competition successes, including a second prize from the German Music Council (2006), a first prize at the international choral competition Lipanjskizvuci (2008), as well as further awards at choral competitions in Hanover and within the framework of Styria Cantat.

Jens Klimek
Chto Delat International is an art collective founded in 2003 by artists, philosophers, and activists, including Dmitry Vilensky, Olga Egorova, and Nikolay Oleynikov. Their name - “What Is to Be Done?” - points to their central concern: art as a tool for political education, collective reflection, and social action. Chto Delat works across a range of media, including video works, graphics and murals, educational theater, newspaper publications, radio plays, and militant theory.

Chto Delat International
The Hover Chamber Choir is a renowned Armenian vocal ensemble, valued for its artistic versatility and international presence. The choir was founded in 1992. It was established and is led by Sona Hovhannisyan, professor at the Yerevan State Conservatory.
From its earliest years, the choir has been distinguished by a unique artistic identity -expanding and developing the scope of Armenian choral music in dialogue with the national musical heritage and the traditions of Western European choral music. The ensemble works with contemporary creative approaches, engaging both in purely choral repertoire and in syncretic combinations and experimentation across a wide range of genres.

Hover Choir
Vardan Harutyunyan is a composer, pianist, multi-instrumentalist, and sound artist based in Yerevan, Armenia. Since 2017, he has been a founding member of the Contemporary Sound Orchestra in Yerevan. Since 2019, he has curated Sound Lab Gyumri, a four-month residency for local and international musicians supported by the Armenia Art Foundation and Creative Europe. In addition, he co-curated a classical-electronic orchestra as part of the Hosq project together with composer Aram Hovhannisyan. Vardan Harutyunyan is also a fellow of the East-West Residency by Creative Armenia in Brussels.
Vahan Soghomonyan is a sound and visual artist as well as an instrument maker whose work is based on site-specific research. He lives in France and has Armenian roots, which form a central point of reference in his practice. His work operates at the intersection of sound, material, and space, often incorporating self-developed instruments and sound objects. Conceptually, he engages with myths, symbols, and collective memory, as well as with the question of how art can serve as a gateway to other modes of perception.

Vahan Soghomonian
Jan St. Werner is a Berlin-based artist and composer whose sound works are developed in dialogue with visual art and architecture. He initiated projects such as the Transnational Sound Initiative and has curated exhibitions and festivals, including at HKW Berlin and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.
His works have been presented internationally, including at documenta 14, the Ural Biennale, and at institutions such as ICA London and Lenbachhaus Munich. In 2023, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden presented his solo exhibition Space Synthesis, and in 2024 he represented Germany at the Venice Biennale. Werner has taught at institutions including MIT and the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. He is a member of Mouse on Mars and Microstoria, and has collaborated with artists such as Mark E. Smith, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Stereolab, and The National. He heads the Institute for Pop Music at the Folkwang University of the Arts.

Jan St. Werner

Partner of the project

The project is led by the Goethe-Institut Armenia in partnership with the NOPA Sound Art Festival and in cooperation with institutional partners in Armenia and Germany.