Konferenz: New Geographies in Sound Art

31.01.2016 / 10:30 – 19:00
With Mazen Kerbaj, Theo Eshetu

Conference in the context of CTM 2016 – Festival for Adventurous Music & Art.

Sounds are mobile and bridge large distances with ease. The internet has multiplied their mobility even further in recent years, and with it the impact and renown of sound artists. Their work is in any case much easier to transport than that of visual artists and, unlike the written word, it requires no translation. This globalisation of sound undoubtedly holds much promise, but also raises pressing questions: Which cultural differences does it bring to light? How should we deal with the fascination of the “exotic”? Is art becoming more fluid given the endlessly multiplying mass of practices and projects? And how does that change the value we assign artistic practises? Artists, curators, theoreticians and other experts will discuss these issues during a one-day conference held in the framework of the CTM 2016 Discourse Programme.
CTM 2016’s New Geographies theme aims to explore music and sound practices that respond to the current a global conflict centred on increasingly radical disputes over the drawing or dissolving of borders, and to provide the conceptual tools needed to approach the complexities of a polycentric, polychromatic, and increasingly hybrid (music) world with greater openness.

Similar themes are also explored in Seismographic Sounds. Visions of a New World, an exhibition conceived and produced by the Norient network and on show throughout CTM 2016 at Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien.
For more detailed information, see the CTM 2016 festival programme at: http://www.ctm-festival.de

10:30 Words of Welcome

11:00 – 12:30 h
False Friends and True Signals: Interculturality in Sound Art
Owing to the latest global events and growing migration streams and, not least, to digital networks’ rapid acceleration of transglobal dialogue, intercultural practice in all its forms is now more relevant than ever. What can we hope to gain from intercultural and transcultural links? Which new perspectives do they forge, and which risks and possible losses do they entail? How open are our conceptual parameters and aesthetic sensibilities to the global practice of sound art?

With Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (Curator at Large, documenta 14, Founder and Artistic Director of SAVVY contemporary, Berlin), Theo Eshetu (video artist, Berlin / Rome), Ekaterina Degot (Artistic Director of the Academy of the Arts of the World, Cologne), Gebrüder Teichmann (musicians, Berlin), Sabine Hentzsch (Goethe-Institute)
Moderation: Marcus Gammel (Deutschlandradio Kultur, Sound Art)

13:30 – 16:00 h
Soundings in Public – Public Sounds: Artistic Notions of Public Space
What significance does public space hold in different cultural settings? Which activities and processes are negotiated there under the respective local socio-political and economic conditions – and how does artistic practice respond to or accommodate them? Which aesthetic practices do such confrontations foster – and why certain practices but not others?

With Dr. Nicola Müllerschön (Program Director Arts and Culture, KfW Foundation, Frankfurt a. M.), Alya Sebti (curator, Marrakesh / Berlin), Anna Raimondo (sound artist, Brussels), Georg Klein (sound artist, Berlin), Dana Whabira (Artistic Director of Njelele Art Station, Harare/Zimbabwe)
Moderation: Julia Gerlach (Head of music at the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program)

16:30 – 18:00
Piece – Presence – Practice: Aggregate States of Global Sound Artefacts
How do various cultures and sub-cultural scenes perceive the manifold work produced in the field of sound art? Is it a field in which “work” and “practice” might be mapped along a linear continuum? Or is global sound art destined always to navigate a complex and constantly shifting amoebic mix of fixed and fluid components?

With Sebastian Klotz (Professor for Transcultural Musicology, Humboldt University), Antye Greie (electronic musician, composer, Hailuoto), Marcus Boon (writer, journalist and Professor of English at York University, Toronto), Mazen Kerbaj (musician, visual artist, Beirut / Berlin)
Moderation: Marcus Gammel

18:00 – 19:00: Finale

A co-production of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD (DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program), Deutschlandradio Kultur / Hörspiel – Klangkunst (Sound Art) and CTM Festival

RSVP: klangkunst@deutschlandradio.de
Free admission for registered participants

Picture: Theo Eshetu (Trip to Mount Zugualla)