This new project, produced by UK arts outfit Forma, brings together two of today’s most pioneering artists in a virtuoso live audiovisual performance. With the World Premiere at the IMAX of their new collaboration, acclaimed Austrian electronic composer Christian Fennesz and the award-winning filmmaker and video artist Charles Atlas bring to Optronica a very different approach to visual music.
Once described as “The electric guitar severed from cliché and all of its physical limitations, shaping a bold new musical language ‘ Fennesz ‘s densely layered musical compositions are anything but sterile computer experiments, having an inherent naturalism, evocative of light, texture and atmosphere. His most recent albums Endless Summer (2001) and Venice (2004) achieved widespread critical and popular acclaim.
Atlas meanwhile, has created work for film, theatre, television and such prestigious museums as the Whitney in NY and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris . A pioneer of the integration of live video with stage performance, Atlas is best known for his acclaimed collaborations with choreographers, dancers and performers such as Michael Clark , Leigh Bowery , Merce Cunningham and more recently with New York band Antony and the Johnsons on the audiovisual performance Turning. Atlas is the recipient of three Bessie (New York Dance and Performance) Awards and was recently presented with the prestigious John Cage Award 2006, by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts .
SHORT Q&A WITH CHRISTIAN FENNESZ
– What attracts you to working in the live audiovisual realm? Can you say a little bit about your background and how it lead you to this point?
I like doing “live” film music. I like to react to a film in a spontaneous, improvisational way. I did it many times, mostly for classic silent movies like “The Man Who Laughs” at the Louvre in Paris, or Walter Ruttmann´s ” Berlin : Die Sinfonie Der Großstadt”, and then Jon Wozencroft was very often doing live visuals for my concerts.
– Can you tell us a bit more about your performance at Optronica Do you use any modified technology or software in your set-up? What do you think of the advances of AV technology in the last decade and how has it impacted on your art ?
I use a patch written in max/ msp. It is called “lloopp” and was designed by friend Claus Filip. I will also use a guitar.
– If your show is collaboration, could you please say something about your collaborators and why you’ve chosen to work with them/him/her ?
Kamal Ackarie of Forma sent me a DVD of Charlie’s recent work. I was really impressed. His work is extremely powerful and elegant.
– Who are your artistic influences, both visual/music and audiovisual?
The Beach Boys, Neil Young, My Bloody Valentine, Joni Mitchell, Merzbow, Stockhausen, Chris Marker, Miles Davis, Ligeti, Kurtag, Romy Schneider and many more.
– Why do you think it’s important for festivals like Optronica to happen?
Because they are not retro.
SHORT Q&A WITH CHARLES ATLAS
– What attracts you to working in the live audiovisual realm ? Can you say a little bit about your background and how it lead you to this point ?
I’ve been working making videos for quite a while. What drew me to working in this live medium was that developments in technology have made it possible as a reasonable, cheap and self-made made way of creating new work. I was also looking for a new way to approach material and to collage material together and it really appealed to me to work in a less controlled way so working with a technology that I couldn’t completely control helped me break out from my normal way of working. I find it enlivening and exciting, some of the way I am working in this media will probably cross-pollinate with my other work as well. Also much of my background and practice has been in dealing with movement in two-dimensional time-based media and this seemed, in a certain way, a natural progression.
– If your show is a collaboration, could you please say something about your collaborators and why you’ve chosen to work with them/him/her ?
I discovered Christian Fennesz by hearing his work playing in a record store that I went into. I went back the next day and tried to figure out who I had listened to you as it had really stayed with me. So, I didn’t know of him at time, but when I discovered who it was I had heard I bought all his records! From my point of view, this is great opportunity to be able to connect and collaborate on this project. This is our first time working together – I’m looking forward to it.
– Who are your artistic influences, both visual/music and audiovisual?
I started out working with Merce Cunningham and John Cage and they have been sort of mentors from the beginning although my work was not very Cage-like until I started really working in live video. Now I feel that the chance element has truly entered into my work as it never has before. Also since very early on in my career Robert Rauschenberg has always been a major inspiration, I was very interested in his Combines collages
In my live performance work I hope to capture something like a live/moving image version of these Combines.
– Why do you think it’s important for festivals like Optronica to happen?
They create opportunities for this kind of work to be shown and in a way that the visual medium is seen as more than something in a club or as wallpaper, so that the work can be more ambitious.