Die Kunst hat Geburtstag. Sie ist 1 000 059. Geburtstag jung!

Art's Birthday goes back to a concept of the French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou (1926-1987), who set January 17, 1963 as the one millionth birthday of art. Art was born when an unknown man dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water. Artists celebrate this moment and art by organizing networked birthday parties. There are performances and concerts, serenades and gifts, sparklers and lots of cakes.

In addition to artsbirthday.net, which is run by the media artist absolute value of noise, Ö1 Kunstradio is an important node in the Art's Birthday network. In 2004, on the initiative of Kunstradio, Ars Acustica, the radio art group within the European Broadcasting Union EBU, also joined the open network with its lines and radio broadcasts. Since then, the group has also been a permanent part of Art's Birthday celebrations.

"WHO THAT MAN WAS IS NOT IMPORTANT... BUT ART IS ALIVE." by student course Sound Arts at the Bern University of the Arts, "Cinéma préparé" by Monika Knoblochová and Michal Nejtek, "Hubraum. For two vibrating speakers, objects and video projection" by Antje Vowinckel and Chris Heenan and "Lineworks" by Alex Brajković were presented as gifts within the framework of the Euroradio Ars Acustica exchange of art.

"WHO THAT MAN WAS IS NOT IMPORTANT... BUT ART IS ALIVE."
by study course Sound Arts at the Bern University of the Arts with guests.

With Pablo Dalcero, Dominic Denz, Julian Koch, Aaron Kurt, Moritz Lienhard, Noah Reusser, Nabel-Amani Serag, Mauel Stillhard, Jacqueline Waelle, Niklas Wey, Milena Krstic, Valerian Maly and guests: Gerhard Johann Lischka and Valentine Verhaeghe with students of the I.S.B.A Besançon.

Self-made electronics, Schubert's Winterreise distorted on Guitar-Amp, some wise words of a famous cultural philosopher and the "Whispered Art History" by Robert Filliou - recorded and released on three vinyl-singles for Jukebox in 1963 - form the backdrop for a brilliant birthday set. The studys at Sound Arts soldered contact microphones in December, not only to amplify the Christmas tree, but also to search for "small-sounds" with these acoustic magnifying glasses. Besides acoustic stardust, they also discovered that legendary dry sponge that the first Kunstly dropped into a bucket of water 1,000,059 years ago....

"Art is what makes life more interesting than art" (Robert Filliou).

Production: Radio Rabe

Cinéma préparé (fragment musical)
by Monika Knoblochová and Michal Nejtek Musical Metallicity live from the Alfred ve Dvoře (Alfred in the Courtyard) Theater in Prague.

"The multinational corporation Global Metallicity has announced that it has successfully cleansed the civilized world of metals, i.e. the last electronic musical instruments as relics of an age of unbridled waste of strategic raw materials. The metal quotas for electromobility and consumer electronics have thus been successfully secured for this year and the metal balance has been established..." So much for the echoes of the future from which the Prague program's concept for Art's Birthday draws. It hints at a future where such sound systems can only be rented with special permission from the Ministry of Industry, brass instruments are only available on the black market under threat of astronomical fines, and the sound of a real harpsichord becomes a highly luxurious experience reserved for the richest one percent. Welcome to a world where the linear system of consumption and the dictates of economic growth have put a stop to the metallicity of music, turning it into a mere flashback and machine playback.

Following this metallic logic, the evening program will be divided into three parts for brass, wires and springs. During the concerts you can imagine yourself in a fictional future without metal in music.

One of the acoustic performances in the wires part of the concert is titled Cinéma préparé (musical fragment). The baroque sounds of the prepared harpsichord, played by Monika Knoblochová in combination with the electronics of Michal Nejtek, are musical fragments from the extensive audiovisual composition Cinéma préparé, which was performed in 2021 by the two musicians in a trio together with the visual artist Jan Komárek. So we can hear only fragments from this project and let expressive visual elements flow through the imagination of the mind.

Production: Czech Radio Vltava

"Hubraum. For two vibrating speakers, objects and video projection"
by Antje Vowinckel and Chris Heenan.

Deep infrared sound frequencies set the membrane of a speaker in motion without the sounds being heard. The performance uses this transmission to make various objects vibrate motorically. Pitch changes are also possible through the manipulation of materials. The constantly varying vibration is structured by precisely placed pauses. - A playful reinterpretation of the conventional use of loudspeakers and a visualization of the physical properties of sound.

Production: SWR

Lineworks
von Alex Brajković

This multi-instrumental, electro-acoustic, live-electronic performance explores the balance between composition and improvisation, electronics and acoustics, live and algorithmic/generative electronics, rigid and elastic material, glitch and ambient. Alex's pieces are performed using multiple computers with custom software, modular synthesizers, drums, and a rare hybrid string instrument.

Production: CROATIAN RADIO

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