kubus
performance, concert, installation

fri. 21. dec. 2007 | 8:30 pm

exit:

after three short, successful years, tesla says farewell with an artists' celebration in the podewils'sches palais.

live:

nathan fuhr's demonshaker with steve heather + rui faustino + marcello silvio busato + phillip zwirchmayr + christian marien + hannes lingens /// michael moser + werner dafeldecker /// tamtam: sam auinger & hannes strobl + david moss /// frank bretschneider /// rechenzentrum /// derek holzer /// steve heather + boris hauf + lillevan /// remco schuurbiers /// nicholas bussmann

installations:

chris kondek: verkündigung - heinrich dubel: berlinnium-maschine - jürgen geers, inge kurtz: unter dem gras darüber.

free admission.

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thurs. 20. dec. 2007 | 10:30 pm

bye bye tesla

c o n c e r t

mitterer, monolake & lillevän: running boxes

the ''personal enjoyment of noise'', this weakness for seething unrest, for complex stacking and compression of material: these are the trademarks of 49-year-old organist, synthesizer player, and composer wolfgang mitterer. during his first meeting with monolake, the berlin sound-electronic engineer and the media artist lillevän, mitterer will ''let it crash''.

mitterer and monolake met briefly during parallel sound installation projects at the luxemburg philharmonic hall. the goal now is to bring the three digital creative universes - hidden in the ''running boxes'', the cases of computer hardware - closer to one another: the culinary, often dub-heavy club beats of monolake, the deconstructed, re-contexted film fragments of lillevän, and the abstract sound floods of mitterer. but the fine-tuning should not go too far. in mitterer's view, ''it is optimal when, through coincidence or intuition, three people find certain points of commonality which can not be conceived or composed. those are trance moments for both the performers and the audience.''

wolfgang mitterer [a]: electronics
robert henke aka monolake[d]: electronics
lillevän[irl]: visuals
mit freundlicher unterstützung des berliner künstlerprogramm des daad und der tu berlin.
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kubus | fri. 07. & sat. 08. dec. and fri. 14. & sat. 15. dec. 2007 | 8:30 pm

spiel mir das lied vom tod

prospect park

spiel mir das lied vom tod (''play me the song of death'') is a computer game that doubles back on reality. gunning down the enemy becomes a case of utmost sensitivity.
prospect park (hannah groninger, jo schramm, florian zwißler) explore this controversial subject and confront the concepts of ''playing music'' and ''playing theater'' with ''playing computer games''. they use the ego-shooter classic ''half life 2'' as a basis for spiel mir das lied vom tod, which turns game consoles into musical, aesthetic, and narrative instruments. without removing the virtual violence from the plot, the pure goal of shooting the opponent is transformed into musical theater. the virtual playing level is connected to the actual space of the game. players gain the practical experience of committing real violence. as aggressors, they construct virtual identities, which control the song of death.
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kubus | sat. 10. nov. 2007 to sun. 02. dec. 2007 | tues. to sun. | 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm

exhibition opening: fri. 09. nov. 2007 | 7:00 pm

9 evenings reconsidered: art, theatre, and engineering, 1966

exhibition by the mit visual arts center
curated by catherine morris

this mit exhibition recalls the '9 evenings' festival in october, 1966, in new york's 69th regiment armory hall. that event marked the first project conceived to bring artists and engineers to cooperate in the creative process. it was also the birthplace of interactive performance. participants included painter and choreographer robert rauschenberg, composer john cage, dancers and choreographers lucinda childs and deborah hay, dancer steve paxton, and film-maker and choreographer yvonne rainer, among others.

billy klüver, the electrical engineer at bell labs who initiated the legendary ''experiments in art and technology'' (eat), was the driving force behind the event. he paired each artist with a bell labs engineer to create a performance. this process made the participating artists - many of whom later deeply influenced their students and other colleagues - aware of the significance that technological advances would have for their artistic work. klüver wrote:

''the 9 evenings were the liberating attempt by ten artists to find out whether it is possible to work together with engineers. to achieve their goal, they dared to delve deep into the realm of the unknown…''

kubus + klub | sun. 02. dec. 2007 | 8:00 pm

9 evenings reconsidered: closing event


during the last two hours of the 9 evenings exhibition in the kubus, there will be a finissage lounge in the klub, with music from the year 1966…

9 evenings reconsidered: art, theatre, and engineering, 1966 was organized by the mit list visual arts center, guest curator is catherine morris. the exhibition was generously supported by the andy warhol foundation for the visual arts, robert rauschenberg, martin zimmerman, dedalus foundation, the council for the arts at mit, and by the massachusetts cultural council.

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klub | thurs. to sat. | 29. nov. to 01. dec. | 8:30 pm

tesla klub: three evenings: eye & ear controlled

withtony conrad, andrew lampert und gästen

a three-day festival, with live performances, film, music, and meetings of the genres. american artists tony conrad and andrew lampert present live film and music performances, as well as a film program with current and historical films by pioneer artists, who work along the borders between experimental film, live electronics, and sound art.

co-curated by thomas ankersmit. produced by tesla. supported by the inm.

entrance: 5 euro per evening.

andrew lampert born 1976, st. louis, missouri; lives in brooklyn, new york
in his triple capacities as filmmaker, programmer, and archivist, andrew lampert engages film as a tactile, proximate entity to be handled with delicacy and care. against the production and exhibition of the moving image as large-scale spectacle for mass consumption, lampert is devoted to small-gauge cinema (16mm, super 8), fragile forms (home movies, found footage), and the most intimate contexts for presentation.

tony conrad born 1940, concord, new hampshire; lives and works in new york
a pioneering musician and filmmaker, tony conrad's work has expanded the very definition of his disciplines' boundaries for more than forty years. whether working in music, film, video, performance, painting, or sculpture, he roots his practice in a fundamentally political stance: as he states, ''the job of an artist is to discover laws to violate that haven't been made yet.'' from 1962 to 1965, conrad played with john cale, angus maclise, la monte young, and marian zazeela as the theatre of eternal music. the group broke new ground in creating what they termed dream music-- minimalist compositions based on drones and individual tones that dispensed with written scores and the musical scale used in western music since the eighteenth century.

thurs. 29. nov. 2007 | 8:30 pm

george manupelli, dr. chicago, 1968, 90 minutes, 16mm

with alvin lucier, mary ashley, steve paxton. soundtrack: robert ashley.

dr. chicago has a devoted cult following among both new music aficionados and comedy film fanatics. how often can you say that? composer alvin lucier stars as the infamous dr. chicago, a sex change surgeon on the run from the cops. the only prints of this riotous trilogy, long out of distribution and previously considered lost, recently resurfaced. a beautifully photographed feature-length laugh-out-loud funny project from the prime movers behind the once group, dr. chicago is an anarchic farce like none other.


thurs. 29. nov. 2007 | 10:00 pm

tony conrad film/video screening
tony conrad presents and talks about a number of his films, including:

straight and narrow (10 min, 16mm, 1970)
articulation of boolean algebra for film opticals (10 min excerpt, 16mm, 1975)
cycles of 3s and 7s (12 min excerpt, ntsc video, 1977)
in line (7 min, ntsc video, 1986)
tony's oscular pets (7 min, ntsc video, 2001)
grading tips for teachers (13 min, ntsc video, 2003)
conversation ii (6 min, ntsc video, 2005)
and more...


fri. 30. nov. 2007 | 8:30 pm

unessential cinema
film screening presented by andrew lampert

a screening of 16mm films from the hidden shelves and cellar of new york city's anthology film archives. anthology is home to more than 20,000 underground, avant-garde and independently produced films, and it's safe to say that not all of them are classics. tonight's show will focus on the underbelly of the sprawling collection with many odd, orphaned reels and curious images. expect to see examples of failed student productions, us military films, confusing advertisements, mysterious b-roll footage, home movies, demented animations and further visual wonderment. unessential cinema finds the sublime in the mundane, the exquisite in the decrepit and the latent in the obvious.

titles will include:

ladies
student film trilogy
in the pants of the universe
star spangled
christmas dinner for marines
please stand by
the cia guy
and more...



fri. 30. nov. 2007 | 10:00 pm

andrew lampert public opinion laboratory
live performance and film screening by andrew lampert

part 1: 16mm films from the benetton series (2004-present)
part 2: a presentation for 16mm projectors, super 8mm projector and multiple performers:

dear germany,

it's time that we discussed with what is going on here. lets be open with each other. i mean, how long can we avoid our hearts? to find shared ground we must first speak a common language. how else can we have a dialogue? through the movies? there is some land and water between us, germany, but still i'd like to get closer. you understand that new york city is a lonely place for an american guy. lets rendezvous to talk it out, to spill our souls. is there a europe where we can retreat together? a little hideaway we might call our own? we wouldn't need much, a little grass bed and a pillow, my coat makes a fine blanket. you and me together, exchanging long glances, in harmony intertwined, germany. i'll meet you there.



sat. 01. dec. 2007 | 8:30 pm

george manupelli cry dr. chicago,1971, 90 minutes, 16mm

featuring alvin lucier, mary ashley, steve paxton. soundtrack by robert ashley.

the final, improbable and deranged adventure of the infamous dr. chicago, sex-change surgeon outlaw. featuring lucier's stunning recitation of edgar allen poe's the raven.



sat. 01. dec. 2007 | 10:00 pm

tony conrad forty-five years on the infinite plain (1972-2007)

in person: tony conrad and m.v. carbon, with six other musicians and andrew lamperta, in a live performance and film event by tony conrad

''a work that relates to time but exists independent of points in time refers to the obverse side of time, beyond the possibility of measuring it with markings: duration. yet unmeasured duration, in principle, is a kingdom entirely at the command of the recipient and his or her subjectivity.''
diedrich diedrichsen, time and dream: tony conrad's yellow movies
ten years alive on the infinite plain (1972), like some other works of the psychedelic era, commingles starkly formal abstraction with introspective romanticism. its insistent conflation of quasi-religious spectacle with materialist minimalism follows a path marked out by rothko, cage, andre, and many others. today these elements have lost their radicalism; even the political conviction of that time, that such work could make contact, through its spiritual insistence, with the political real behind the culture of commodity and spectacle (as diedrichsen puts it), seems problematic and thin.

in revising ten to forty-five, i am addressing a broader chronological perspective, relocating to a different social allegory, and accessing the plural tools that encompass a more contemporary minimalism. the subject that is, the viewer is still at the center of the work; but now the polyvalence of subjectivity is recognized in a figural usage of heterophony and antiphony. a solo cello challenges the lead instrument, and the audience area is divided in half. musical figures invoke divisiveness, albeit over the unitary ground of the drone. there are two distinct rhythms to follow, further dividing the subjects attention.

these elements of what would have been seen in 1972 as confusion instead, in todays heterotopia, reflect and invite access to a subjectivity that is more true to life, more centered on the plain where we stand.

tony conrad: violin
m.v. carbon: cello with reel-to-reel tape recorder and electronics
sonja müller: violin
anthea caddy: viola
jörg hiller: cello
clayton thomas: bass
werner dafeldecker: bass
thomas ankersmit: long string instrument
andrew lampert: projectionist
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klub and studio 2 | fri. 16. + sat. 17. nov. 2007

klub | 9:00 pm | matt rogalsky transform | david tudor microphone

studio 2 | 10:00 pm - 12:00 pm | hans w. koch & volker straebel tesla transmissions - installation

studio 2 | 10:45 pm | performance tesla transmissions

two evenings

the 9 evenings performances resist reconstruction. with their enormous technical requirements and massive spatial needs, they were clearly not conceived to be repeated. even the composers among the participating artists did not prepare scores, with the result that the events could only be recorded through reports, sound and film recording, sketches, wiring diagrams, and logistical notation.

composer and sound artist matt rogalsky will perform his own works, as well as tudor's microphone, which was created in 1970 for the pepsi pavilion of the osaka world fair. and with tesla transmissions, composer and sound artist hans w. koch and musicologist volker straebel take up a subject which john cage treated in variations VII of the 9 evenings: the process of transmission and live electronic manipulation of various sounds.
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learning to fail | scheitern lernen | het leren mislukken

since the 1960's, artists, theater people, composers and musicians have been inspired by the performances, compositions, and installations of dutch universal artist dick raaijmakers. all share a fascination with unpredictable results of unsolvable problems. in addition to a documentary exhibition, colleagues, friends, and students of the great pioneer will present artistic productions with a tendency towards the impossible and unpredictable.
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kubus | thurs. 01. nov. 2007 | 8:30 pm

gilius van bergeijk: 6 pianoinstallaties

6 ways to make a pianist's life difficult. 6 problems and 6 solutions from the radical ''haagse school'' of the 1960's. with gilius van bergeijk and dutch pianists post & mulder.

mara van vlijmen / paul koek / veenfabriek: kleine mechanica van de open vorm

she recites a long and difficult text by dick raaijmakers, while he moves geometric forms around on a table. the poetry and humor are in the details.

veenfabriek: tooverfluit

theater maker and musician paul koek was director of theatergroep hollandia for many years. with his theater group, de veenfabriek, koek brings a siren orchestra to berlin.

dick raaijmakers: pianoforte

a concert grand piano is sacrificed for art, not entirely in the style of nam june paik. for 2 pianists and 1 microphonist.
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kubus | fri. 02. nov. 2007 | 8:30 pm

sxs enterprise: fear_lab - a multi-media performance

fear_lab is a live film on the screen and in the mind. borrowing from the aesthetics of psycho-thrillers, the audience’s imagination takes on the starring role.

jens brand: new methods for circular breathing, #3 / player piano & piano player

the audience observes a pianist working on a mysterious problem. with a little good luck and a little bad luck, some ''music'' will be left at the end. the origins of the problem lie with the piano, the music that is never really finished, and the ego that is.

bmb con. featuring carsten stabenow: neue arbeit

the anarchist performance artists from the netherlands perform with a guest from berlin. they offer a performance ''that could have been by dick raaijmakers''.
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kubus | sat. 03. nov. 2007 | 8:30 pm

marion de laat: tweeling

marion de laat plays a duet with her alter ego - who is 15 years younger; an audiovisual adventure in the world of accordions.

hans w. koch: computers as musical instruments

unconventional ways and means of recording and playing music on laptops.

florentijn boddendijk: florentintin

like a bar pianist, florentijn boddendijk plays jazz classics that he arranges, creating new compositions from fragments of old recordings.

edwin van der heide: solo performance

the magic of edwin van der heide’s work is in the strong combination of technical knowledge and aesthetic imagination.

tres: blackout concert # 23

what remains when the electricity in the kubus is gradually turned off? what happens when one machine after another ceases to buzz.