The “Dom im Berg” is known to Graz residents mainly as a venue for events, while the tunnels around it and the lift serve as public transport through and onto the Schlossberg. Mozart and Bach recordings are played in a continuous loop, intended to persuade the young people who loiter there that this is, in fact, not a comfortable place to stay.


Reinhard Gupfinger tapped into the power supply installed for this deterrent system and used it for his sound intervention. At first it sounded similarly inoffensive: the call of the cuckoo echoed through the tunnels. These historic radio recordings were once again resounding through the spaces that had served as protective bunkers and emergency accommodation for thousands of people during the Second World War. These earlier occupants had all learned to fear the cuckoo call, for it was not broadcast to signal the arrival of spring, but rather the arrival of enemy planes. This sound was the signal that the regular radio programme had been stopped. They switched to the so-called ‘Drahtfunk’ wired radio stations, so that the bombers could not react to the information being broadcast.