Works of Music by Visual Artists

A series of events featuring performances and exhibitions of musical works and compositions by visual artists The series »Works of Music by Visual Artists« presents pieces by artists who are internationally known as visual artists. Some of these musical works and compositions have seldom been heard; some are new works commissioned for the series. For the participating artists, the connection between visual arts and music – between visual and acoustic experience – is an integral component of their artistic work. Transdisciplinary and structural transformation, and the creation of dissonance and counterpoint, all play a role. The thematic focus on the border zone between music and visual art has been a guiding concept for Freunde Guter…

Cevdet Erek

20 Years Works of Music by Visual Artists CEVDET EREKBergama Stereo Architectural construction with sound & performance program Hamburger BahnhofMuseum für Gegenwart – Berlin / Historical Hall Opening: October 18, 2019, 7 p.m.Exhibition: October 19, 2019 – March 8, 2020   Bergama Stereo2019 Architectural construction with 34-channel sound & performance programLoudspeakers, amplifiers, computer, audio interface, wood, metal4,50 m x 14 m x 9,25 m In Bergama Stereo, an architectural installation with sound, the Istanbul-based artist and musician Cevdet Erek references the form, the historically attributed function and the ongoing reception of the Pergamon Altar, now located in Berlin, and creates a new interpretation of the famous Hellenistic edifice, which dates back to the second century…

Bergama Stereo performance program: Bergama Stereo Variations + Davul Step 2

Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin   Friday, November 29, 2019, 8 p.m.  Bergama Stereo Variations + Davul Step 2 Live Mixing: Cevdet Erek Davul: Cevdet Erek, Gökhan Deneç, Saba Arat Cevdet Erek performs a live remix of the 34 seperate audio channels of his installation Bergama Stereo. He will be joined by Saba Arat und Gökhan Deneç to experiment with the davul, the double-headed drum popular across the Middle East and on the Balkans, a forerunner of the Western bass drum. It is struck with a strong mallet on the upper side, hanging from the left shoulder on a strap. On the lower side, it is played with a thin whip, which makes buzzing…

Bergama Stereo performance program: Contagious [De-Constructed]

Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin     Monday, 27 January 2020, 8 p.m. Contagious [De-Constructed] Three-part concert evening: Duo, Solo, Trio Contagious Inside piano, electronics: Andrea Neumann Trumpet, electronics: Sabine Ercklentz Turntables, electronics: Mieko Suzuki Founded by Andrea Neumann and Sabine Ercklentz, two innovative voices from the Berlin improvisation scene, and Mieko Suzuki, experimental DJ and musician operating in Berlin, the contagious trio explores the intersections between club-oriented, danceable music on the one hand and ‘autonomous’ experimental music on the other, opening up new aesthetic spaces through mutual ‘contagion’. The musicians raid each other’s musical realms and exchange roles. Within fragile sound textures, pulses grow audible. Grooves disintegrate into fragments of sound, which…

Bergama Stereo performance program: The Aesthetics of Resistance

Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin     Saturday, 15 February 2020, 8 p.m. The Aesthetics of Resistance Rap Remixes on Peter Weiss’s description of the Pergamon Altar in German, Turkish, English Voices: Ayben, David Moss, Volkan T error An open-ended experiment! – Ayben, the renowned and successful Turkish rapper from Istanbul; Volkan T error, the German-born Berlin resident and pioneer of Turkish Hip Hop, Hard- & Metalcore; and David Moss, the American-born Berlin resident and doyen of experimental vocal and percussion forms, have been invited to work with the magnificent description of the Pergamon Altar that opens the monumental three-volume novel “The Aesthetics of Resistance” (1976–81) by Peter Weiss. Using the installation, the…

Bergama Stereo performance programm: DJ-Battle Lippok Bros. vs. Nicolai Bros.

Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin     Saturday, 29 Februrary 2020, 9 p.m. DJ-Battle Lippok Bros. vs. Nicolai Bros. Robert & Ronald Lippok, Carsten & Olaf Nicolai 4 turntables, 2 mixer, 1 dancefloor, 1 jury, 1 price Jury Mo Loschelder (Media Loca), Masha Qrella (musician), Susan Philipsz (artist), Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary (Modeselektor) Referee Max Dax Warm Up DJ MXHD As unique personalities, Carsten and Olaf Nicolai and Robert and Ronald Lippok are outstanding protagonists in the landscape of the visual arts and music in Berlin, Germany and far beyond. The experienced DJs square off tonight in a rare, bizarre competition. Who will perform better, who will get people more in the mood…

SCORES

Works of Music by Visual Artists SCORES Saâdane Afif, Christian Marclay, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Jorinde Voigt Exhibition & Concerts Exhibition: October 28 – November 13, 2016 Opening: October 27, 2016, 7 p.m. Concerts: October 28 & 30, November 13, 2016 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin / Rieckhallen Invalidenstraße 50-51 10557 Berlin SCORES, the latest in the series Works of Music by Visual Artists, is an exhibition and concert project devoted to the musical score, a subject that gets constantly re-examined in the visual arts as well as in music. Particularly since the 1960s, the score has been appreciated, above and beyond conventional musical notation, as a multivalent medium of recording which…

SCORES – Ari Benjamin Meyers

Ari Benjamin Meyers Who’s Afraid of Sol La Ti? (Invention I) 2016 Daily activation of individual meta-scores by Wojtek Blecharz (composer) and Susanne Fröhlich (recorder) throughout the entire duration of the exhibition, and performance of the entire collection in the final concert.   In his exhibitions and compositions, Ari Benjamin Meyers explores structures that redefine the performative and immaterial side of music and examine the question of how music can be exhibited in the context of art. With Who’s Afraid of Sol La Ti? (Invention I), he converts the exhibition space from a site of presentation to a space of production and reflection. Starting from a brief theme composed by Meyers, along with its various…

SCORES – Jorinde Voigt

JORINDE VOIGT Song of the Earth 2016   The drawings by Jorinde Voigt, conceived primarily in cycles and called notations and scores by the artist herself, form the core of the artist’s multifaceted oeuvre alongside photographic works, actions, objects and (sound) installations. From Song of the Earth, a projected eight-part cycle of drawings on which Voigt is currently working, the first four chapters are presented in the exhibition: Radical Relaxation – Stress and Freedom, The Shift, Divine Territory and The Farewell. The associative starting point of this new work series is the symphonic song cycle Das Lied von der Erde by Gustav Mahler. Comparable to Mahler’s individual songs, each chapter in Voigt’s drawing cycle is…

SCORES – Christian Marclay

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY Screen Play, Zoom Zoom, To Be Continued   Christian Marclay is known internationally as a virtuoso of ‘sampling’. In his practice, which includes live performances as well as purely visual works, he takes found objects – often carrying a musical connotation – from daily life, the consumer world and mass media, and remixes them in order to generate his art. In Screen Play (2005), black-and-white archival footage taken from various films are combined with colourful computer-animated graphics whose dots and lines recall traditional musical notation. For the musicians of the ensemBle baBel, with Elliott Sharp as guest, these visual cues provide the stimuli for the rhythm, mood, volume, and length of their performance. The slideshow…

SCORES – Saâdane Afif

Saâdane Afif Vice de forme: Das Kabarett 2016   The installative works by Saâdane Afif often call to mind production processes in music: he works with scores/concepts, song texts, composition, posters and recording media. In a continuous and potentially unfinished process of transformation, and with the incorporation of authors, musicians and performers, the artist generates a fascinating network of relationships and references. The exhibition Vice de forme: Das Kabarett is based on Saâdane Afif’s 2009 sculpture Vice de forme, comprising a cylinder, cube and sphere, in which the artist references the sculpture Hommage à priape (1920/1972) by Man Ray and the cartoon Psychose d’attentat (1974) by the French comic artist Reiser. Vice de forme forms…

Susan Philipsz

01.02. – 04.05.2014 Opening: 31.01.2014, 8 p.m. Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin / Historic Hall Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Invalidenstr. 50-51, 10557 Berlin Tue, Wed, Fri 10–6, Thu 10–8, Sat, Sun 11–6 Part File Score 24-channel sound installation Twelve ways to describe Hanns Eisler Photo: Nick Ash The sound works by the internationally acclaimed Berlin-based Scottish artist Susan Philipsz are often created for particular locations and refer to their history and spatial features. For the historic hall of the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin, Philipsz has designed a sound installation that relates both to the building’s former function as a railway station and to the architectonic structure of the hall…

Lecture and artist talk

29.04.2014 / 7 p.m. Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Invalidenstr. 50-51, 10557 Berlin Program accompanying the exhibition Works of Music by Visual Artists SUSAN PHILIPSZ Part File Score 24-channel sound installation Twelve ways to describe Hanns Eisler Program: Welcome Ingrid Buschmann and Gabriele Knapstein Introduction to the film music compositions of Hanns Eisler with film excerpts with Peter Deeg and Johannes C. Gall (in German language) Susan Philipsz in conversation with Martin Herbert (in English language) Participants: Peter Deeg (Berlin) is a musicologist who frequently publishes on Hanns Eisler and is currently associated with the music archive of the Akademie der Künste Berlin. In 2012/2013 he compiled a filmography…

Ryoji Ikeda

28.01. – 09.04.2012 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin | East and West Wing db Composition | Exhibition Fotos: Uwe Walter Japanese composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda has conceived an exhibition for the Hamburger Bahnhof that, for the first time, compositionally unites 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 has designed the white room and the black room as counterparts, not only physically (brightness, color), but also conceptually and perceptually. The project is a composition in which time and space…

Egill Sæbjörnsson & Marcia Moraes

21.03.2011 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin | Aktionsraum What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There Performance | Installation (2011) WP Egill Sæbjörnsson, Marcia Moraes – Künstlerische Leitung Egill Sæbjörnsson – Videos, Gesang, Gitarre Áki Ásgeirsson, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Magnús Jensson – Komposition Áki Ásgeirsson, Egill Sæbjörnsson – Arrangements Ensemble Adapter Kristjana Helgadóttir – Flöten, Marc Tritschler – Klavier, Keyboards, Matthias Engler – Perkussion, Steinunn Arnardóttir, Leópold Kristjánsson – Soundeffekte The Icelandic artist and musician Egill Sæbjörnsson combines elements of installation and performance, video and live music in his works. In complex, poetically narrative spatial installations, he actively becomes part of the situation, often together with other artists. Animation, video projection, live music, sound, drawings and…

Cory Arcangel

28.11.2010 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin Music for Stereos Performance | Composition Live program for the exhibition »Here Comes Everybody« by Cory Arcangel November 30, 2010 – May 1, 2011 On November 28th, the New York artist and musician Cory Arcangel will give his first live performance in Berlin as part of the »Works of Music by Visual Artists« series, which has been produced since 1999 by Freunde Guter Musik Berlin e.V. in collaboration with the Nationalgalerie and other partners. That evening, the artist will present his composition »Music for Stereos«, compiled from a group of pop songs with Lil Wayne’s »Knockout« as the starting point; the action on stage involves…

Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller

14.03. – 17.05.2009 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin / Historical Hall The Murder of Crows (2008) Mixed Media Sound Installation Photo: Roland März With their largest sound installation to date, »The Murder of Crows«, the two Canadian artists Janet Cardiff und George Bures Miller continue the explorations they embarked on in the mid-1990s into the sculptural and physical attributes of sound. In the otherwise empty historical hall of the Hamburger Bahnhof, 98 loudspeakers will be installed. These emit sounds of voices, music and soundscapes generated by special stereophonic recording and replay techniques, creating a composition that has a direct physical impact on the listener. The special Ambisonic soundfield system generates a…

Carsten Nicolai

04.09. – 12.11.2006 Singapore Biennale 2006 National Museum of Singapore syn chron Architectural Body as Interface Space. Light. Sound. (2005) Carsten Nicolai – concept, composition Finn Geipel & Giulia Andi, LIN – architecture Werner Sobek – supporting structure David Letellier – artistic/architectural assistance Ingrid Buschmann, Gabriele Knapstein – curators LaserAnimation SOLLINGER GmbH – laser technology, programing ELAC Electroacustic GmbH – audio technology Nibo – sound programing Rob Feigel – technical production Visual artist and musician Carsten Nicolai has conceived of a mobile space that serves as acoustic body, resonating space and projection surface all at once – a crystalline architectural body whose translucent skin is the vehicle for both acoustic and optical events. Electronic music…

Carsten Nicolai

17.12.2005 – 19.02.2006 Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan syn chron Architectural Body as Interface Space. Light. Sound. (2005) Carsten Nicolai – concept, composition Finn Geipel & Giulia Andi, LIN – architecture Werner Sobek – supporting structure David Letellier – artistic/architectural assistance Ingrid Buschmann, Gabriele Knapstein – curators JENOPTIK AG – laser sources LaserAnimation SOLLINGER GmbH – laser technology, programing ELAC Electroacustic GmbH – audio technology Nibo – sound programing Rob Feigel – technical production Visual artist and musician Carsten Nicolai has conceived of a mobile space that serves as acoustic body, resonating space and projection surface all at once – a crystalline architectural body whose translucent skin is the vehicle for both acoustic…

Carsten Nicolai

07. – 16.10.2005 BIENNALE BERN 05 Hochschule der Künste Bern HKB, Große Halle syn chron Architectural Body as Interface Space. Light. Sound. (2005) Carsten Nicolai – concept, composition Finn Geipel & Giulia Andi, LIN – architecture Werner Sobek – supporting structure David Letellier – artistic/architectural assistance Ingrid Buschmann, Gabriele Knapstein – curators JENOPTIK AG – laser sources LaserAnimation SOLLINGER GmbH – laser technology, programing ELAC Electroacustic GmbH – audio technology Nibo – sound programing Rob Feigel – technical production Visual artist and musician Carsten Nicolai has conceived of a mobile space that serves as acoustic body, resonating space and projection surface all at once – a crystalline architectural body whose translucent skin is the vehicle…

Carsten Nicolai

25.02. – 03.04.2005 Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin / Upper Hall syn chron Architectural Body as Interface Space. Light. Sound. (2005) Carsten Nicolai – concept, composition Finn Geipel & Giulia Andi, LIN – architecture Werner Sobek – supporting structure David Letellier – artistic assistance Ingrid Buschmann, Gabriele Knapstein – curators JENOPTIK AG – laser sources LaserAnimation SOLLINGER GmbH – laser technology, programing ELAC Electroacustic GmbH – audio technology Nibo – sound programing ideea Messe- und Dekorationsbau GmbH – production architecture Rob Feigel – technical production Photo: Uwe Walter For the upper hall of the Neue Nationalgalerie, visual artist and musician Carsten Nicolai has conceived of a mobile space that serves as acoustic body, resonating space and projection…

Käthe Kruse

14. & 15.03.2002 / 22:00 Uhr Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof Le Sexe Rouge (1997/2002) Performance / Installation / Film Performer: Käthe Kruse In 1997 Kruse released the CD “Le Sexe Rouge” with 13 songs which she composed and performed. The title song refers to an installation shown in 1996 at the Zwinger Gallery in Berlin; in subsequent years, Kruse developed a complex visual environment for each of the 13 songs. In 2000, she presented the 13 artworks in an exhibition at the Kunstverein Bremerhaven.  Not only did she design an object or a series of pictures for each song, she also worked out entire performance situations, each containing a film, a color slide projection, and…

Christian Marclay

11.03.2002 / 19:00 h Neue Nationalgalerie / Upper Hall Graffiti Composition (WP) Ensemble zeitkratzer, conductor: Butch Morris Shelley Hirsch – voice, Anthony Coleman – piano Marclay has also long been a familiar and important figure in Berlin. In 1993, while living in the city as a guest of the DAAD, he staged the enormous simultaneous concert “Berlin Mix” for the 10th anniversary of Freunde Guter Musik. Instead of sampling records, he arranged the diverse repertoire of over 180 musicians of all styles and genres into a polyphonic and multicultural musical tableau. A few years later, in 1996, all “Berliners” could themselves participate in a collective city-wide composition. As part of “sonambiente – festival for hearing…

Lawrence Weiner / Peter Gordon

08. & 11. – 13.11.2000 Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn The Society Architect Ponders the Golden Gate Bridge oder: Wie sie kriegen, was sie nicht verdienen (2000) WP Opera project by Lawrence Weiner (libretto, design) and Peter Gordon (music) with Joan La Barbara (mezzo-soprano), Jeffrey Reynolds (tenor), Kevin Zoernig (keyboard) Chor des Orchester GENERATION BERLIN, director: Christian von Borries It has the status of a myth: the Golden Gate Bridge, built according to plans by the German engineer Joseph Strauss, officially opened after four years of construction on May 28, 1937; 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) long and 27.5 meters (90 feet) wide. Each day, 100,000 cars on six lanes pass through this needle’s…

Lawrence Weiner / Peter Gordon

08. – 10.09.2000 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof / Historical hall The Society Architect Ponders the Golden Gate Bridge oder: Wie sie kriegen, was sie nicht verdienen (2000) WP Opera project by Lawrence Weiner (libretto, design) and Peter Gordon (music) with Joan La Barbara (mezzo-soprano), Jeffrey Reynolds (tenor), Kevin Zoernig (keyboard) Chor des Orchester GENERATION BERLIN, director: Christian von Borries It has the status of a myth: the Golden Gate Bridge, built according to plans by the German engineer Joseph Strauss, officially opened after four years of construction on May 28, 1937; 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) long and 27.5 meters (90 feet) wide. Each day, 100,000 cars on six lanes pass through this needle’s eye on…

Stephen Prina

21.06.2000 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof To the People of Berlin (2000) UA for 12 strings, piano, percussion & e-guitar, Stephen Prina (Voice, e-guitar) Orchester GENERATION BERLIN with John Herndon (percussion), director: Christian von Borries Artist Stephen Prina, who was born 1954 in Illinois and lives in Los Angeles, makes reference  to works in the fine arts, music, literature, film and philosophy in his projects. He ponders their context in society, history or the media in order to vary and reconfigure their underlying structures. The spectrum of his source material ranges from ancient writers to contemporary pop music. Prina recently garnered critical acclaim as a composer and musician for his CD “Push Comes to Love”. His…

Rodney Graham

18.06.2000 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof / Historical hall Parsifal (18. June 2000, 20:18:13 – 22:19:23 h) WP Real-time excerpt from “Parsifal 1882 – 38.969.364.735 A.D.” for 12 string and 9 wind instruments Orchester GENERATION BERLIN, director: Christian von Borries For more than 20 years, Rodney Graham, who was born 1949 in Vancouver and still lives there, has been creating large complexes of work about specific historical and cultural contexts, in which he uses various media including printing, installation, photography, music, film and video. Since his participation in the 1997 Venice Biennale and his solo exhibition at the Vienna Kunsthalle in 1999, Graham has been reaching a broader audience in Europe. He is currently staying in…

Hermann Nitsch

01.12.1999 Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle, Bonn Die Musik des 6-Tage-Spiels 1998 (excerpts) Orchestra concert with 40 musicians, conductor: Andrea Cusumano Noise music, shouting choirs and sounds of all kinds are an integral component of the actions of Hermann Nitsch, who was born in Vienna in 1938. He has pursued his grandly conceived theatrical concept, a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk known as the “Orgien-Mysterien-Theater”, since the ’60s. Parallel to his theater work, Nitsch made concerts and recordings entitled “Selten gehörte Musik” (seldom heard music) during the ’70s in collaboration with artists such as Günter Brus, Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm and Oswald Wiener. In addition, the artist produced compositions for the organ as well as orchestral pieces. Hermann Nitsch’s…

Hermann Nitsch

28.11.1999 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof / Historical hall Die Musik des 6-Tage-Spiels 1998 (excerpts) Orchestra concert with 40 musicians, conductor: Andrea Cusumano Noise music, shouting choirs and sounds of all kinds are an integral component of the actions of Hermann Nitsch, who was born in Vienna in 1938. He has pursued his grandly conceived theatrical concept, a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk known as the “Orgien-Mysterien-Theater”, since the ’60s. Parallel to his theater work, Nitsch made concerts and recordings entitled “Selten gehörte Musik” (seldom heard music) during the ’70s in collaboration with artists such as Günter Brus, Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm and Oswald Wiener. In addition, the artist produced compositions for the organ as well as orchestral…

Yves Klein

25.11.1999 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof / Historical hall Symphonie Monoton – Silence 1947 – 1961 Performance with 20 singers, 10 violins, 10 cellos and each 3 double basses, flutes, oboes and horns Orchester GENERATION BERLIN, director: Christian von Borries Introduction: Valerian Maly Yves Klein, who was born 1928 in Nice and died in 1962, developed a multidimensional life’s work within a few short years. A central figure in the “nouveau réalistes” group, “Yves the phenomenon” (as he was often called) created a single musical work that, in light of recent music history, appears as a phenomenal creation indeed. “Symphonie Monoton – Silence” consists of a single sustained sound followed by an extended “absolute” silence. In…

Hanne Darboven

04.05.1999 Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn opus 19 & opus 20 (sections), requiem 1985-88 – for harmonium (WP) opus 26 (sections), Quartett 1989/90 – for string quartet opus 38a & opus 38b – symphony 1999ff. for chamber orchestra (WP) Orchester GENERATION BERLIN, director: Christian von Borries Hanne Darboven was born in Munich in 1941 and has lived for many years in Hamburg. Since the end of the ’60s, she has worked with numerical additions based on calendar dates, which she writes out in drawings and books and presents in wall- and spatial installations. She began to translate the numerical constructions that underlie her visual works into musical structures in 1980. Darboven reconfigures certain…

Hanne Darboven

28.04.1999 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof / Historical Hall opus 19 & opus 20 (sections), requiem 1985-88 – for harmonium (WP) opus 26 (sections), Quartett 1989/90 – for string quartet opus 38a & opus 38b – symphony 1999ff. for chamber orchestra (WP) Orchester GENERATION BERLIN, director: Christian von Borries Hanne Darboven was born in Munich in 1941 and has lived for many years in Hamburg. Since the end of the ’60s, she has worked with numerical additions based on calendar dates, which she writes out in drawings and books and presents in wall- and spatial installations. She began to translate the numerical constructions that underlie her visual works into musical structures in 1980. Darboven reconfigures certain…