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Events

08 Oct 2011

Performance

The wrong capercaillie
von Wichtel und die Wuchteln
Rosa Barba, Oswald and Ingrid Wiener, Jan St. Werner, Klaus Sander





The artist Rosa Barba, the producer Klaus Sander (supposé publishing, Berlin), the musician Jan St. Werner (Mouse on Mars), the cyberneticist and writer Oswald Wiener and the artist Ingrid Wiener invite you to attend a concert and cooking performance on the evening of 8 October in the gardens of the Villa Romana.

"The Western Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) is a member of the pheasant family (Phasianidae) in the game birds order (Galliformes). With slight variations according to weather patterns, vegetation growth and altitude, the courting season of the Western Capercaillie begins in March and lasts approximately until the end of June. At the very beginning of dawn, tree courting begins on a thick branch of a lookout tree (the courting tree). The cock adopts a distinctive posture – raised and fanned tail feathers raised and neck erect, beak pointing skywards – and starts his characteristic courtship song, which consists of tapping with the beak, drum roll, a loud pop and then grinding sounds, lasting about six seconds. This courtship display causes a one-hundredfold increase in the cock’s normal testosterone level. A further courtship dance, the Lek, takes place in the autumn, although this is solely for the purpose of staking out territory on the display ground for the next season."

see: wikipedia



Oswald Wiener, born on 5 October 1935 in Vienna, is one of the theorists of the Wiener Gruppe (Vienna Group, 1954-1964), one of the most radical artists’ associations to form in post-war Europe. Wiener originally studied music, law, African languages and, later, mathematics. From 1956 he engaged intensively with questions of theoretical and practical cybernetics. In 1963 he was employed by Olivetti in Vienna and went on to manage the data processing department from 1965 – 1967. In his book Bio-Adapter (1965/66), Wiener prophesied the future of cyberspace. Oswald Wiener also initiated the project Art and Revolution, which premiered on 7 June 1968 at the University of Vienna. He collaborated with the leading players of Viennese Actionism, Hermann Nitsch and Günter Brus. >From 1992 – 2004, Oswald Wiener was professor of poetry and aesthetics at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art. He now lives with Ingrid Wiener in Alaska and Austria.

Ingrid Wiener, born 1942 in Vienna. From 1958 – 62: participation in performances by the Wiener Gruppe and in experimental films. Moved to Berlin in 1969. 1971 – 1985: work in restaurants Matala, Exil and Ax Bax. Since 1986, a resident of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Performances as singer and chef, records, films (working with Valie Export and Oswald Wiener, among others). 1974 -1997: artistic collaboration with Dieter Roth. Since 1995: work on dream images; web-based media and photography. Most recent book: Man darf auch weben was man nicht sieht (You can also weave in what you don’t see), Kerber, Bielefeld/Leipzig 2007.

Klaus Sander, born 1968 in Westphalia, lives and works as an independent director, producer and publisher in Berlin. Since 1996 he has been dedicated to developing and establishing an independent style and publishing platform for the spoken word with his own publishing label, supposé. One can hear Nobel Prize winners, physicists, artists, behavioural scientists, philosophers and writers: Albert Einstein, Arnold Schönberg, Friedrich Kittler, Herta Müller, Hubert Fichte, Max Planck and many more. He was awarded the German Audio Book Prize in 2004 for his supposé project, as well as sponsorship from the Kurt Wolff Foundation. Ein Sommer, der bleibt. Peter Kurzeck erzählt das Dorf seiner Kindheit (A summer endures. Peter Kurzeck narrates the village of his childhood) was named audio book of year 2008.

Jan St. Werner founded the band Mouse on Mars with Andi Toma in 1993 in Düsseldorf. His own label sonig followed in 1997. Mouse on Mars has been a successful band for 18 years and tours worldwide with "sophisticated music as part of a theoretical framework". In 2005 Jan Werner published Vorgemischte Welte (Pre-mixed Worlds, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a.M.) with co-author Klaus Sander.

Rosa Barba, born 1972 in Agrigento, has produced music videos for Mouse on Mars and Microstoria, just as Jan St. Werner has provided the music for many of Rosa Barba’s films. Rosa Barba originally studied theatre and film in Erlangen, then at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts and from 2003 – 2004 at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. In the last ten years, her films and film installations have been shown on the international stage. In 2010 she exhibited in the Tate Modern. This summer she had solo exhibitions at the MART in Rovereto and at the Galleria Civica in Trento. A further solo exhibition is in preparation for 2012 at the Kunsthaus in Zurich. Rosa Barba had her first solo exhibition in Italy at the Villa Romana in 2008.

In 2007, Rosa Barba, Oswald and Ingrid Wiener, Jan St. Werner and Klaus Sander produced the CD Wichtel und die Wuchteln: Hämchen Hämchen, in collaboration with Anja Theismann and with a double quartet from the male voice choir of Alpenland Mariazell.

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