URBE-BERLIN A Psychogeographic Investigation
Urbe utilises analogue and digital media, its main exploration focusing on the aesthetics of urban landscapes. The overall concept is the exploration of physical acoustics within the historical reflection of space.
In 2012, we began this project in Mexico as part of a collaboration with four independent audio and visual artists. As result, the project was presented at three venues: Chopo Museum in Mexico City, CEEMAS in Morelia and Laboratorio Sensorial in Guadalajara.
This year URBE is inspired mainly by the complex history of Berlin and its urban geography.
The proposals that URBE-BERLIN presents this year are based on urban histories and the constant post war geographical changes in a global context.
URBE-BERLIN is comprised of Verónica Mota, Jon Evans, Amanda Gutiérrez, Anthony Janas, Daniela Gast and Seamus O’Donnell.
Live presentations in Germany curated by URBAN ARTS BERLIN
RUINEN UND SCHATTEN
“Ruinen und Schatten” is an audio project by Verónica Mota Galindo, which reflects the city of Berlin in its form as an urban context in constant change. This project portrays the eternal state of renovation, the historical shadows of the past, the oblivion of lost memories and the new tendencies in Berlin. Using analogue instruments, samplers, percussive objects (subjected to Musique Concrète techniques), audio effects, records, tapes, field recordings, voice-overs and historical footage, the artist will create a 20 minutes work for live performance (solo).
The conceptual background of this project are the daily life of children and adults in post-war Berlin after the destruction of the Third Reich, the migratory and social effects caused by the construction and destruction of the Berlin Wall and the ruins and renovation of East and West Berlin.
BIO
Verónica Mota Galindo is a sound artist from Mexico City based in Berlin since 2002. Her sonic works have received much attention in Europe, Australia and the United States. Some of her most important creative collaborations have taken place with important artists and musicians based in her new home such as: Miriam Wuttke (Performance Art), Jon Evans (Live Music/Performance), Annie Stubbs (Music), Alain Ledezma (Music) y Miro Mastro- pasqua (Film), to mention just a few.
Verónica Mota Galindo has won regard in the audio arts field with her solo project CUBOP. The more significant releases in which CUBOP has taken part are: Sacredly Silver and Equally Gold – A Sidereal Tribute to COIL (ElseProducts-2013), 36 Aus 430 Von 30 (Edizioni Passarotto, 2013), CASTRATION Compilation (SP- Records, 2012) Fetus Frolics (Urban Arts Berlin, 2012) and Avantgarde Master Pieces (Liebe Records, 2011).
She is musically active in five sonic projects: The Sublime, The Abject, The Devil and Miss Jones, Materia Negra and Espectra Negra.
http://cubop-berlin.bandcamp.com/album/madre-tenebra-ep
http://networkedblogs.com/121bP
AUFERSTANDEN AUS RUINEN
“Auferstanden Aus Ruinen” (German for “Risen from Ruins”), the national anthem of the extinct East German Democratic Republic (DDR), described the situation of Germany after the defeat of the National Socialists through the time of the military occupation until the formations of the two exclusive republics of post-war Germany.
Nowhere were these ruins more typified than in the city of Berlin.
The project takes the form of the national hymn of the DDR, “Auferstanden Aus Ruinen” and uses its modalities and general form as the backbone of the piece. Historical recordings will be used to describe the linear narrative (which will sequentially describe a period of 40 years) and will be accordingly treated, sampled and layered according to a score. Techniques derived from Musique Concrète such as hard gating, frequency-shifting, filtering, reversing and other kinds of synthesis to create a “meta-hymn” to the People’s Republic. The story is basically that of the Berlin, capital city of the DDR, and its Rise and Descent into Ruins.
BIO
Jon Evans is a sonic and visual artist and musician. He studied painting and sculpture in the early 1980s before forming the industrial music groups The Unconscious Collective (with Louis Burdett, ex-Free Kata) and Last Dominion Lost (with Dominik Guerin, ex-SPK, and John Murphy, ex-Current 93), as well as being the singer of the Australian sleaze- rock band, The Methylated Spirits. Current musical projects include The School For Cadavers (with Julian Percy), The Grimsel Path (with John Murphy) and The Sublime (with Verónica Mota, a.k.a. Cubop).
http://lastdominionlost.bandcamp.com/
http://www.auditionrecords.com/ar072.php
http://the-sublime-berlin.blogspot.de/
RUINS/CITY/MEMORY
Objects collected in the city of the performance are elevated to a new status. In the process of sampling and manipulating the sounds of these objects a new (but old) story is teased into being, persuaded to reveal the epic journey of its city. By reducing the city to a few objects and then abstracting their metaphoric properties to a live sound piece is the preferred method of the artist, KnifeLoop, to learn of the hidden beauty and ugliness, and the mystique that lurks beneath the surface of all cities.
NoisiV, an experimental music group consisting of LifeLoop (SÈamus O’Donnell’s stage name) and Androvirus. They work with a mix of field recordings, homemade instruments and live sampling manipulation.
BIO
Seamus O’Donnell is an Irish sound artist who lives in Berlin. His work includes projects in the field of sound and media art, experimental radio and live improvisation. He is co initiator of the series of experimental music concerts in Salon Bruit Berlin, which has regularly organized events since 2002 has been involved in many different temporary radio projects (such as PiRadio, RebootFM, Radio Tesla, Funkwelle and currently 88vier).
“Right now I am most interested in live-sampling of sounds and noises, whether acoustic or electronic, the repetition and manipulation of these samples and the discovery of new sounds through this journey. I use knives, metal bowls, self-built electronics, tapes, a 4-track sampler and magnetic and contact microphones.”
https://soundcloud.com/knifeloop
SUBURBIA
The suburbs emerge as an unconscious desire for self-segregation. This stems from the conscious motivation to remove oneself and family from the physical chaos of the city.
Suburbia became a satellite space with the goal to preserve and embalm the traditional symbols of the middle class. Symbols such as the nuclear family, home ownership, and proud consumerism are all mummified in the suburban landscape.
The images will speak and show the absence of the human physical presence, showing only house exteriors and personal belongings.
The audio portion will emphasize the two states found in the suburbs. The tension between planned construction and the entropy in the human mind, as found between the architecture and residents of Suburbia will also be explored in the audio during the performance.
Collaborative project by Amanda Guitiérrez and Anthony Janas.
BIO
Amanda Gutiérrez is a Chicago-based artist from Mexico who focuses on the concepts of memory, home and urban landscapes in the context of the social, political and personal effects of migratory displacement. She uses photography, video and sound to create an ambiguous assemblage of remembered stories. She has participated in several programs worldwide like the FONCA program at the Banff Centre of the Arts in Alberta (CA) in 2009, the Taipei Artist Village in Taipei (TW) in 2009 and the Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe (DE) in 2002.
http://www.arte-sur.org/artists/amanda-gutierrez-3/
Anthony Janas. Born on June 8th 1984. Born into a blue collar family and raised with a working class mentality. Previous solo work, Easter Sea (tt tapes) Simpleton Electronics (nihilist records), Birthday (third sex records). Member of Chicago Krauthause group Deep Earth.
Anthony Janas uses electronic music as a device to examine and express the irrational and predictive territories of the human condition. This is achieved through modular synthesis because of the instruments logical computation. Modular synthesizers have crude computing capabilities that can construct a simple song, although they can behave and express elements that appear groundless or be interpreted as musical structures that are abstract or experimental.
http://www.nihilistrecords.net/records.php?id=nihil75
DESIRE AND SATISFACTION
In a multilayered performance narrative of 10 minutes Desire and Satisfaction are conceptual anchors in this piece set and related to Berlin.
Through video projection, sound, object and the character of a performing hedgehog (myself) this piece pierces through personal and historical high and low points relating to Desire and Satisfaction within the time frame of 1976 until 2013.
BIO
Daniela Gast
Germany, Berlin 1976
She completed her Bachelor in Fine Art/Sculpture, at the National College of Art Design, Dublin, Ireland, 2003. Her art practice is expressed through video, sound, installation art and performance art. In recent years the focus has been on creating and showing 5-15 minute performance pieces using her body, video, sound and costume.