KRAAK FEST 2026 HIGHLIGHTS: Anouk Kellner

Can you give us a little info on your background? What's your artistic and musical parcours been like?

From a young age discovering music was a way of understanding what I liked and who I was. I was quite an introverted, reservd kid but could lose myself completely in music. Even then, I was constantly searching for music that pushed the boundaries of what my mind deemed possible. I think that, especially as a teenager it was a way of shaping my identity and setting myself apart. I also played guitar then, and even wrote songs with it. They were mostly cheesy melancholic teenage songs, but recently I listened back to some old recordings on my laptop. It felt very wholesome and also funny to listen to those again, haha.

When I was 18 I moved to Brussels to study Radio at RITCS School of Arts, mainly because I felt the need to talk and share my fascination for the music I was listening to. The problem was, whenever I was on the radio I became very shy in front of the microphone. It really stressed me out. Presenting on the radio was not my biggest talent. 

In the Radio course we also had a lot of Sound Art classes and I started to focus on this instead. My teacher, Belgian sound artist Jeroen Vandesande, sparked something in me. I was exposed to sounds and music I had never heard before as an 18 year old. It opened up a new world. Through it also I grew more open. And from then on it became quite clear to me that sound art and experimental music would be a path I would follow. So since then I’ve been exploring what this means to me, the past years mainly focusing on the organ. Playing the church organ but also giving it my own reinterpretations.

Tell us more about your process of making this installation. More specifically, how do you decide which materials to use? And where do you source them? 

The organ pipes mostly come from dismantled church organs. I bought almost 200 of them from a guy in Eindhoven who helped to break down a church organ in the 80s. Before that, I’ve called organ builders to ask if they had materials they would throw on the dump and if I could instead pick it up. You would be surprised what I have been able to collect this way. Right now I have a varied collection of different types of pipes.

For the textiles I am very limited, since it needs to be 100% airtight, otherwise the installation would not make any sound. So you know, not a lot of options are left. I went for simili-leather, because it was the sturdiest material, and I don’t want it to break and constantly have to replace the bags. Durability is the most important and when I have to decide on material I always try to make choices with this in the back of my mind.

For the prototype of the installation I used hair dryers as an air source, very fun and DIY, but it was not safe at all. I almost started a fire once. So that needed to go. In this second version, I use a big industrial fan coming from an old supermarket. Apparently, in the 70s-90s, when customers would buy cigarettes at the counter, the packs would be blown through a pneumatic tube system from the one side of the supermarket to the cashier. Before having a new role as air source for my installation, the fan I use did exactly that.

And the valves in the wind chamber come from the outlet of sports cars, it works perfectly. My material comes from everywhere, but I like the idea that a lot of it had another life before that.

Musically speaking, what are your inspirations? Is there a specific sound you're seeking with your installations?

My inspiration changes every two weeks or month, so I often struggle with answering this question. Whatever I answer now often feels incomplete later, and I feel like I should have said or added something else. But over the past two weeks I’ve been listening a lot to Hanne Lippard’s solo work. She explores the sculptural materiality of the voice and language and it really fascinates me. I rarely use language in my own work, but it almost makes me curious to approach it in a way. Next month it will probably be something totally different again. But if I do have to look at a bigger picture, I’ve been interested in early Flemish polyphonic music for several years now. 

Recently I’ve mostly been very inspired by dance and film though, feeling like it’s almost a way of distancing as well. Because it’s not my own medium, it feels easier to translate what I take from them to my own hand. It can feel liberating. I’m a visual person, my sonic ideas often start from a certain image that’s stuck in my mind, which I then try to translate to sound (or sculpture).

I was into experimental films some years ago and lately found back this interest. I’ve been enjoying the films of German filmmaker Klaus Wyborny for example. I especially feel like experimental film teaches me about reduction, how to narrow down an end result, to keep the essence. I feel like it’s very important. I recently started on a new project, and one of my main goals is exactly that: to narrow down, narrow down, narrow down….

What’s your favorite spot you’ve let your pillows play?

During the building process of the second version, I needed a big space to install the work and make the compositions. My grandparents had just gone to the retirement home, so I could use their house to work in. 4 days into the composition process, my grandfather died. It felt strange, I just set the whole installation up there in his house. It was like a “parasite”, spreading its legs and pipes through his living room, kitchen, toilet, bedroom, through all his furniture still reminding of him. Because I was in his house while composing and grieving, he felt close to me, It felt like the Airchoir was singing, shouting, for him. The ceilings in his house were very low so the sound couldn’t escape, it was so extremely loud. I think that this spot was, for me personally, the most beautiful and important. This place is what shaped the Airchoir 2. Some people told me it’s a pity I haven’t done a performance there back then, in his house, or filmed it properly. And in a way that’s true, but I also was not thinking about that then. I was not in that headspace. I could still do it now, but his furniture is all gone, so it would never feel the same. 

You have done multiple collaborative performances with your sound installation. Can you tell us more about these collaborations? How was it to work with a dancer, Clara Cozzolino? 

I learned a lot in that process, it was meaningful to work with a dancer. Especially because it was rooted in improvisation. When I work alone, I mostly operate in the opposite direction. I like to think concepts out beforehand. My performances are mostly timed to the second. In my solo-work, at least for now, there is almost no space for improvisation. In the collaboration with Clara Cozzolino and double bassist Nils Vermeulen we let go of that control, and it felt important to discover the work in an alternative way, regardless of the outcome. Clara made me conscious of where my body is positioned in dialogue with the installation, and I feel that even in my solo-performances, this changed the way I think about how certain movements add or take away from it, even though I am not a dancer. 

Every time I collaborate I realize it is essential to my own development. When I worked with vocalist Yannick Guédon and flutist d’Incise, another part of the installation was revealed to me through their eyes/ears. In the end the Airchoir sounded completely different than ever before, being entirely stripped back to its essence.

More Anouk:::Instagram - YouTube

Anouk Kellner opens KRAAK Fest 26 with a special Airchoir performance in the theater room all the way upstairs ~ her installation will be visitable throughout the duration of the festival. Tickets here!