Project Presentation
“From a few expressions on the face of the performer Akemi Takeya to a frenzied exploration of the alter ego, any known context of meaning ends in the dissolved movements, is stalled in denaturalized redundancy, in machine pain. The semantic void is too loud to be amenable to meditative reception. The frontal images, the rhythmic structures generate contradictory emotions and great strain. Entertainment is offered and almost violently denied. At the highest level of energy, enjoyment reaches the limit.”
GRANULAR SYNTHESIS is Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich.
Granular Synthesis on Anti-Utopias
Chicago based Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger creates audiovisual performances and installations. He began to exhibit his work in 1983, creating surreal machine-objects, and since has been working with time-based media, film, video, animation and sound. The immersive nature of his work reflects on the metaphor of the sublime and the human condition. His current work further researches human perception and the impact of new technologies on both individual and collective consciousness.
Between 1992 and 2003 he worked collaboratively as one half of “Granular-Synthesis”. Employing large scale projected images and drone like sound-scapes, Granular-Synthesis performances and installations confronted the viewer on both a physical and emotional level, overwhelming the audience with sensory stimulation.
Selected presentations include the Venice Biennial, the Venice Theater Biennial, National Art Museum of China Beijing, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, PS1 New York, Creative Time, Inc. New York, MAC – Musée d’Art Contemporain Montreal, MAK – Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, National Museum for Contemporary Art Seoul, ICC Tokyo, Fondation Beyeler Basel, Arte Alameda Mexico City. In 2010 he won a Quartz Electronic Music Award for his most recent work.
Kurt Hentschläger on Anti-Utopias
Ulf Langheinrich
