COVERED CULTURE
audio-visual multichannel installation by Muntendorf / Lobeck
We are companions, cum panis, at table together. [Donna Haraway]
In the German-Asian project COVERED CULTURE, Brigitta Muntendorf and Moritz Lobeck explore cultural imprints, individual interpretations and collective appropriations as potentials of the choric forms. The musical object of analysis is the humming – as sound, in its intimate and personal meaning and as a moment of levelling.
Based on fragments of Beethoven’s vocal music and his political view of the collective, Muntendorf/Lobeck develop an 8-channel audiovisual installation in which voices and images of singers of the Beijing Queer Chorus, the Opera Choir of Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar and numerous singers and performers from China, Korea and Japan are established as a virtual choir. For the exhibitions in Berlin, Shanghai and Beijing the choir and the audience are connected within a table object designed by the Japanese architect KATO and prepared with exciters to form a social sculpture. On the other hand, soundwalls are part of the installations in Seoul, Tokyo and Kyoto. In this joint discovery and investigation of the unfamiliar, COVERED CULTURE follows the vision of a hyperculture and the critical questioning of hymnal celebratory cultures.
COVERED CULTURE is the first joint work by Muntendorf/Lobeck, their next project is the music theatre „MELENCOLIA“ for Ensemble Modern, commissioned by Bregenzer Festspiele 2022.
COVERED CULTURE #7 | Interculture Space | Guangzhou [04/2021]
Interculture Space Guangzhou is located in the more than 300 years old Hu’s Ancestral Hall in Huangpu Ancient Port, which is located in Huangpu village, not far from the center of Guangzhou. Interculture is a new non-profit independence space. It cooperates with European and Chinese cultural exchange institutions, foundations and enterprises.
COVERED CULTURE #5 | TPAM Tokyo-Yokohama | BankART Temporary [02/2021]
The bankart 1929/Temporary is an experiment of utilizing historic buildings for the purpose of art and culture. The intention is to create a place for artistic and cultural incubation and to accept a wide range of ideas from not only local citizens and specialists, but also overseas people.
TPAM (performing arts meeting in Yokohama) established in 1995 as Tokyo performing arts market and moved in 2011 to the “Creative City” Yokohama. Reinforcing its focus on Asia and having started to involve itself in Asian co-production, TPAM is internationally recognized as one of the most influential performing arts platforms in Asia.
COVERED CULTURE #6 | Kagan Hotel | Kyoto Experiment [02/2021]
Kaganhotel is a community based art facility accommodating hotel for the general public, as well as an artist-in-residency programme. With a gallery and shared atelier provided in the building, Kaganhotel will be a new cultural spot. Kyoto Experiment is an international leading contemporary arts festival, held every autumn since 2010 in Kyoto. It showcases the wide-ranging and radical work of artists from Japan and around the world.
COVERED CULTURE #4 | 798 Art District / Goethe-Institut Beijing [12/2020-01/2021]
Artists like Ai Weiwei have set up their studios since the 1990s. The Beijing Queer Chorus and the Chinese indie pop artists No Trace were part of the opening show on dec 6th.
COVERED CULTURE #3 | LOOP ALT SPACE | Seoul [11/2020]
As Korea’s first-generation Alternative Space, LOOP remains dedicated to building alternative life philosophies and aesthetics in neoliberal times. LOOP refuses the co-opting of arts organizations by a powerful minority for political or economical purpose. LOOP will continue to create its own system of organization that protects art’s autonomy and imaginative power. Loop’s activities are not profit-driven but community-oriented, and are therefore free and open to everyone.
COVERED CULTURE #2 | Duolun Museum of Modern Art | Shanghai [10-11/2020]
Opening performance and first stop of covered-culture in Asia with Zi Han & Lin Cuixi, opening reception with directors of the museum, Goethe-Institut, Austrian Consulate General Shanghai, German Consulate General Shanghai (pictures Guo Bin).
COVERED CULTURE #1 | Radialsystem | Berlin [10/2020]
COVERED CULTURE first opening at the Radialsystem Berlin with symposium “decolonizing classical musics?” Within the framework of “the other beethoven(s)”
