Ivana Dama has a unique intersection in the arts. “The relationship between air raid sirens and electronic music is a part of history, and that’s not obvious.”
Her installation “Breathing Alarms” is currently in the Checkpoint Charlie guardhouse in the garden at the Wende, and her musical performance on June 24, 2026, offered an abstract composition played on a device she created using clear plastic plates punctuated with patterns. Alarm or melody; how the audience chose to interpret was open.
Creating sound by moving just air, she expanded on how the simplicity of the instrument allowed her to create a very nuanced piece of music. “I could use breath, but today, with the fires, I’m using a can of compressed air,” she varied the tone and type of sound that the audience heard. While rotating the plates, and varying the speed of the rotation, she mimicked many familiar tones, from sirens to birdsong.
“The research that I’m doing about early inventions and technologies that were used militarily or commercially looking at the 1800’s specifically – the piece that I’m using today is based on technology from 1865.” Before sirens were used for air raids, they were employed to warn about natural disasters.
Dama reflected on her own personal history, growing up in Begrave and the bombing of the city in 1999. “Audible memories can be created without the same context as visual memories. Sometime we hear a sound that reminds us of something, and we get a feeling, but perhaps not a complete [reading] of what that memory calls up.”
She noted that the ‘Breathing Alarms’ installation was a challenge – as an historic structure, she was not able to change anything to use the space inside, “and the way that we have to use our bodies to interact with this formal, bureaucratic [guardhouse,] to physically lean in, it can feel intimidating.”
The people who listened to the music she made had to brace against the background of passing traffic, of the conversation of people walking by the garden, and the birdsong from the nearby trees. Levels of subtle variations had everyone listening even more closely.
Breathing Alarms will be on display in the garden at the Wende until October 2026.
Judith Martin-Straw
Photo – Ivana Dama with Curator Joes Segal
