EXTENDED COMPOSITIONS

The exhibition EXTENDED COMPOSITIONS approaches the web of relations between the fine arts and music in the structural interlinking of both media, thereby making a new and independent form of artistic practice visible, audible, and tangible.

Looking at the creative interaction between musical and visual composition, the exhibition is inspired in particular by the work of artist Hans Richter, whose notions of counterpoint led him to transfer musical ideas into optical impressions and film, as well as by the legacy of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. With his synaesthesia-inspired “clavier à lumières,” the early twentieth century figure opened up music to the realm of visual art. The exhibition’s range of artworks, largely grounded in contemporary practice, likewise combine music and the fine arts in a decidedly non-hierarchical but closely interrelated audio-visual manner and reflect on the formal foundations of these two forms of art and their transgression.

In conjunction with the exhibition at Kunstquartier Bethanien, a concert evening at RADIALSYSTEM V— nearly entirely comprised of German premières by international artists—will present the intermediary spaces between musical and visual composition.

EXTENDED COMPOSITIONS is a project by Ellen Fellmann, presented by Kunstquartier Bethanien in conjunction with RADIALSYSTEM V, the Electronic Studio at the Technical University Berlin, and the Bern University of the Arts. Supported by funds from the Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin. With the generous support of the Swiss art foundation Pro Helvetia.

Idea, Concept, Curator: Ellen Fellmann
Curatorial counsel: Harald Theiss