Big Concertnight

Michael Knoll — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:31:08 +0000

Resonant Bridges
So/Sun 2. 9. 19:30
Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Freiraum
Klangpark
Brucknerhaus, Großer Saal, Mittlerer Saal
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Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Freiraum
19:30 HEAVYLISTENING (DE): Tiefdruckgebiet

Brucknerhaus, Großer Saal
20:30 Bruckner Orchester Linz (AT), Dennis Russell Davies (Dirigent / US/AT), Martin Achrainer (Bassbariton / AT)
Philip Glass (US): Songs of Milarepa
Celine Desrumaux (FR): Countdown
Bruckner Orchester Linz (AT), Dennis Russell Davies (Dirigent US/AT)
Johannes Berauer (AT): Echoes of the Miraculous
Dirk Koy (DE): The City

Klangpark
21:25 Klangwolkenminiaturen Live

Brucknerhaus, Großer Saal
22:00 Bruckner Orchester Linz (AT), Dennis Russell Davies (Dirigent / US/AT)
Misato Moshizuki (JP): Ima Koko
Daniel Franke, Cedric Kiefer (DE): unnamed soundsculpture
Bruckner Orchester Linz (AT), Dennis Russell Davies (Dirigent / US/AT)
Amr Okba (EG/AT): Etappe
Jean-Thomas Bédard, Alain Clavier (CA): This is a Recorded Message

Brucknerhaus, Mittlerer Saal
23:00 Ö1 Kunstradio

GX Jupitter-Larsen
Klammer & Gründler Duo
Kunstradio All Stars

This is the 10th anniversary of the Big Concert Night. Ars Electronica launched this collaboration with the Brucknerhaus and the Bruckner Orchestra in 2002 to present an invigorating blend of orchestral music, digital sounds, live electronics and visualizations. In the spirit of this year’s festival theme, THE BIG PICTURE, concertgoers will be treated to wide-angle glimpses of a modern world that is globally networked acoustically as well, whereby this broad musical spectrum is impressionistically reflected by the array of performers—up-and-coming virtuosos and old masters alike. The narrative arc extends from the composure of the Buddhist way to the unruly events of Arab Spring.

Fans of auditory creativity can partake of a full-throttle prelude to the evening’s presentations from the Lentos Art Museum’s plaza. In Tiefdruckgebiet (low pressure area) by HEAVYLISTENING (DE), high-performance autos pimped out with mega-bass sound systems are the instruments of a concerto at the low end of the human hearing range.

Works by a Tibetan yogi inspired Philip Glass (US) to compose his Songs of Milarepa. A version for piano and baritone will open the evening’s musical proceedings in the Brucknerhaus. The visualizations are the work of Michael Mayr (AT) and Tom Lorenz (AT).

A visualization by Leonard Wegscheider (AT) will accompany some jazzy Echoes of the Miraculous by Johannes Berauer (AT). Written during a period of political upheaval in 2011, the four-part composition is meant to evoke an ingenuous, childlike view of the world and to eschew all logical objections in clinging to hope for better times to come.

In her composition Ima Koko (Japanese: here and now), Misato Mochizuki (JP) proceeds in accordance with the teachings of Buddhism that the cosmos is contained in a mote of dust and eternity in the blink of an eye. The sound made by striking a gong is elongated in the extension of time and space until all the individual parts of this intonation are revealed. Conny Zenk (AT) complements the tonal universe with a visual one.

Amr Okba’s (EG/AT) work Etappe is an effort to come to terms with the Arab Spring. The rhythm of the daily grind is acoustically put to an end by an inner voice that cries out for rebellion against the prevailing despotism. Austrian artist Anna Blume has created a highly appropriate visualization.

Three animated films honored by the Prix Ars Electronica will be the intermezzi punctuating the orchestral pieces. In Countdown, Céline Desrumaux (FR) takes us on a trip through the cosmos to the music of Apparat. The City by Dirk Koy / Equipo was made as a music video for the band Five Year Older. unnamed soundsculpture by Daniel Franke and Cédric Kiefer (both DE) features an impressive symbiosis of dance, computer animation and sounds from Machinefabriek’s piece Kreukeltape.

Marco Palewicz (AT), Chris Bruckmayr (AT), Maximilian Walch (AT) and Michael Kaczorowski (AT) take on the Klangwolkeminiatures, mix them up live and shape soundscapes and tracks. Atmospherical or straight to the beat, the inspiration is following the mood of the moment, rhythms, melodies, voices and more are being combined and torn up. The musical result reflects the background of all the protagonists involved, ranging from Doom Techno through noise right into electropop.

This is a Recorded Message is still a highly relevant statement made in 1973 by filmmaker Jean-Thomas Bédard (CA) and composer Alain Clavier (CA), a critique of the consumption orientation of our times in the form of a huge montage of hundreds of advertising images.

To round things out, Ars Electronica and radio station Ö1 are congregating to celebrate Kunstradio’s 25th anniversary. Some special acts are offering congratulatory greetings. High-decibel radio artist and author GX Jupitter-Larsen is presenting his Loud Luggage/Booming Baggage

THE BIG PICTURE Cinema

Michael Knoll — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:46:51 +0000

THE BIG PICTURE Cinema
Do/Thu 30. 8. 10:00 – 19:00
Fr/Fri 31. 8. 10:00 – 17:30
Sa/Sat 1. 9. 10:00 – 16:30
So/Sun 2. 9. – Mo/Mon 3. 9. 10:00 – 19:00
Brucknerhaus

Q&A mit/with Peter Sasovsky (Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis / US)
Sa/Sat 1. 9. 15:30 – 16:00
So/Sun 2. 9. 15:30 – 16:00

Q&A mit/with Sebastian Frisch (Whisper Down The Lane / DE)
Fr/Fri 31.8. 13:00 – 13:30
Sa/Sat 1. 9. 17:00 – 17:30

The BIG PICTURE Cinema screens films that feature literally inimitable images of the world, and showcase human beings whose work crosses borders in amazing and inspiring ways and brings to light new ways of seeing things in the process.

“Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis” by Peter Sasowsky (US) is a portrait of Joe Davis (US), a fascinating scientist, researcher and artist who as a matter of principle ignores all academic boundaries and seamlessly combines artistic practice with scientific work. Ars Electronica has once again honored him for an outstanding work in 2012. His experiments and achievements have included using the vaginal contractions of ballet dancers as a means of communicating with aliens in outer space, translating poetry into DNA, and creating a sculpture to save the world.

On October 10, 2010, 19,000 people in 160 countries cinematically documented episodes, events and moments in their lives and made the footage available to serve as elements of the largest collaborative film ever made. “One Day on Earth” by Kyle Ruddick (US) interweaves the tragedies and triumphs, heartbreaking conflicts and moments of love occurring simultaneously worldwide into a “Big Picture” of humankind.

In “Passage 2011,” Christian Schoen (DE) documents the wacky trans-Alpine journey of two German artists to attend the Venice Biennale. During a torturous three-week trek that was by no means short on rain and snow, Wolfgang Aichner and Thomas Huber (DE) schlepped a homemade boot on a route that included the Schlegeis Glacier at an altitude of over 3,000 meters.

In “Whisper Down the Lane,” a group of Salzburg students headed by Sebastian Frisch (DE) confront the half-truths and rumors about HIV and AIDS that circulate in many African countries. The victims of this information deficit are, above all, women and children. The film is part of a sensitive consciousness-raising campaign.

Dissatisfied with how her country’s mass media was reporting on the Arab Spring, Austrian high school student Agnes Aistleitner traveled at her own expense to Egypt to talk to people on the streets and in marketplaces, and to form her own picture of what was happening. The video she made, “State of Revolution,” garnered her the Golden Nica in the 2012 Prix Ars Electronica’s u19 category.

“This is a Recorded Message” is still a highly relevant statement critical of our consumption-oriented times. This short animated film made in 1973 by filmmaker Jean-Thomas Bédard (CA) and composer Alain Clavier (CA) is on the Big Concert Night program.

One of BIG PICTURE Cinema’s focal-point themes is the pioneering work of Canadian experimental filmmaker Arthur Lipsett (1936-86), whose meticulously edited, collage-like short films strongly influenced Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas and other great directors. “Very Nice, Very Nice” is an avant-garde work featuring brilliant interplay of photography and sound. “Trip Down Memory Lane” works with 50 years of odd headlines to create an explosive remake of the past. “21-87” focuses on the individual in a very spiritual way and is considered Lipsett’s masterpiece.

Alain Clavier – THE BIG PICTURE

Big Concertnight

THE BIG PICTURE Cinema