MidSide

Japanese composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda had conceived an exhibition for the Hamburger Bahnhof that, for the first time, compositionally united the two symmetrical halls on the upper level of the museum's east and west wings. The exhibition's title "db" (abbr. for decibel) refers to this symmetry while simultaneously indicating the complementary relationship between the two exhibition spaces.

Ikeda had designed the white room and the black room as counterparts, not only physically (brightness, color), but also conceptually and perceptually. The project was a composition in which time and space were shaped through the most minimal use of sound, light and visual elements. It was the artist's first solo exhibition in Germany.