Fog horns resound to mark the opening of the 2015 Ars Electronica Festival and its prime venue, POST CITY.
Search for Flawless Space
In his double spatial opening number, trombonist Bertl Mütter (AT) uses his paired instruments—das Mut- und das Wunderhorn—to pose a musical question entitled irreprehensibilis? that enquires into what makes for a perfect location: How flawless must such a place be for none of it to have to be taken back? After all, in sharp contrast to another festival venue, Mariendom, the cathedral that, in Mütter’s opinion, still pretty much lives up to the intention of its builders, the Postal Service logistics center was “shockingly soon” obsolete. Nevertheless, Mütter himself carries on, visibly and invisibly, nearly inaudibly and then back with vehemence, and ultimately, as sort of the stunt of the evening, from the Train Hall’s bridge.
Tilting Piano
Rupert Huber (AT) then tilts his piano into a horizontal electronic field. His tender depressions of the keys, barely enough to coax out a tone, lets the piano resound on its own. The stronger he gets, the more and louder the tones get before vanishing into an acoustic pillar, and the more intensively they are, in turn, fed into an accompanying plug-in that extends and expands them, gives them wings, and transforms them into a timeless meshwork. He’s followed on stage by Maki Namekawa (AT/JP), who’ll interpret selected etudes by Philip Glass, and thus lesser-known works from the American composer’s oeuvre, on the concert grand.
Musical Migration
Then it’s time for Peter Androsch and Anatol Bogendorfer (Hörstadt/AT) to fire up their Diaspora Maschine and use musical ways & means to consider the wave of refugees currently crashing onto Europe’s coastlines and the utter failure of an entire political class.
Mass Extinction
Next up is raum.null, a collaboration of Chris Bruckmayr (AT) and Dobrivoje Milijanovic (SR), with a performance entitled the sixth wave of mass extinction that goes acoustically and visually to the core of postmodern society, limning the potential threat inherent in a worldwide die-off of flora and fauna that has already gotten quietly underway.
Parallel Worlds and Retro Films
Lightening things up a bit are DJs Lotic and M.E.S.H from Salon 2000, a parallel universe of music, film and art engendered in 2013, and DJs Uli Mayr and Thomas Scheutz (AT). The program will be preceded by and punctuated with short films by pioneering Linz filmmaker Alexander Hans Puluj (AT). In 1949 he founded Linz’s first art cinema and built up a film production company that specialized in animation, industrial films and tourism footage, and thus indirectly captured the city’s development during the postwar boom years.
Opening Schedule POST CITY
| 7:30 PM-1 AM | Naked Veriti |
| 7:30 PM-8:15 PM | Admittance to the sounds of foghorns and drums |
| 8:15 PM-8:30 PM | irreprehensibilis? (1) Bertl Mütter (AT) |
| 8:30 PM-9 PM | Rupert Huber (AT) |
| 9 PM-9:30 PM | Maki Namekawa (AT/JP): Etudes by Philip Glass (US) |
| 9 PM-11 PM | Uli Mayr (AT) and Thomas Scheutz (AT) |
| 9:30 PM-9:40 PM | irreprehensibilis? (2) Bertl Mütter (AT) |
| 9:40 PM-10:20 PM | Diaspora Maschine, Peter Androsch (AT) & Anatol Bogendorfer (AT) in cooperation with Hard-Chor, Landestheater Linz, Landesmusikschulwerk and Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität |
| 10:20 PM-11 PM | Chris & Didi Bruckmayr (AT) with Dobrivoje Milijanovic (SR) aka raum.null Visuals: Veronika Pauser aka Vero Visual, Peter Holzkorn aka Voidsignal and Florian Berger aka Flockaroo, Produktion: Claudia Schnugg |
| 11 PM-12 midnight | DJ M.E.S.H (presented by Salon 2000) |
| 12 midnight-1 AM | DJ LOTIC (presented by Salon 2000) |