Video Cycles, 2003-2006
presented by the Musée d’art contemporain, February 8 to March 5, 2006
Film screening/Concert
Sound performance by the artist to the film Der müde Tod by Fritz Lang,February 15, 8 p.m.
Montréal, January 24, 2006 – From February 8 to March 5, 2006, the Musée d’art contemporain presents two video cycles by German artist Thomas Köner, which will be shown here for the first time in their entirety. This world premiere is part of the museum’s Projections film and video program launched in 2005. As a special highlight, on Wednesday, February 15, Köner will give a live performance at the Musée: a film screening/concert to the film Der müde Tod (Destiny, 1921) by Fritz Lang, in Beverley Webster Rolph Hall. The event is offered in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut.
A major innovator on the contemporary media arts scene, Thomas Köner grew up in the world of music, in Germany. He was second violin in the Bochum youth orchestra at the age of eight, and later attended the music college in Dortmund, the city where he lives and works today, and studied electronic music at the CEM-Studio in Arnhem. Firmly committed to creative sound research, he developed his own musical language very early on. He avoids rhythm and melody, concentrating, instead, on the phenomenon of sound colour. A film sound engineer from 1992 to 1994, he went on to compose movie sound tracks and live electronic music to accompany screenings of old silent films at venues including the Musée du Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, where he performed the first music he wrote for the Fritz Lang film Der müde Tod. Between other projects, he founded Porter Ricks in 1996, together with Andy Mellwig—an initiative that established him as a highly regarded producer in the world of progressive techno music. His interest in visual and auditory experiences has also led to numerous collaborations with musicians, filmmakers and visual artists on installations and sound performances, and to his creation of six video works produced in two cycles, starting in 2003. The Video Cycles 2003-2006 presented at the Musée introduces us to them for the first time on the same program.
“Thomas Köner’s work draws us into a temporal experience of exceptional poetic power, a moment of extreme yet suspended intensity: an instant of infinity. To fully apprehend it, we must learn to give in to the moment,” says Louise Ismert, coordinator of multimedia events at the museum. Köner embarked upon his first video cycle with Banlieue du vide (2003), using thousands of images gathered via the Internet. Right away, this work garnered attention and awards, including the Golden Nica at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria. The second and third works in the series, Suburbs of the Void (2004) and Nuuk (2004), which also speak of the North, sparked the same enthusiasm. In 2005, Köner began a second video cycle, of which part 1_Harar (anicca) earned him the Arco Award for Best Young Artist at the Feria internacional de Arte Contemporaneo in Madrid, Spain.The cycle is completed by part 2_Beograd (2006) and part 3_Buenos Aires (2005). Based on images shot in these three places, the three works are “driven by a particular sensitivity to the notion of the peripheral and a certain sense of life in these cities that are a little bit apart …,” adds Ismert.
On the occasion of Video Cycles 2003-2006, the museum is also holding a very special evening: a sound performance by Thomas Köner to the film Der müde Tod, a rarely seen, 99-minute masterpiece by German filmmaker Fritz Lang. This will be a unique opportunity to discover another aspect of the artist’s work, his sound tracks for silent movies; the newly composed music will be performed here live. Der müde Tod—released as Les Trois Lumières in French and Destiny in English—is a fantasy romance, featuring magical images conjuring up Venice, China and the Middle East.
Film screening / Concert
The film screening/concert by Thomas Köner will take place on February 15, 2006, at 8 p.m.in Beverley Webster Rolph Hall. Tickets may be purchased from the Musée d'art contemporain, in person or by phone at (514) 847-6226, or from the Admission network, at (514) 790-1245. Cost: $14 (students: $10). Admission to the museum is free from 6 p.m. on.
The Musée d'art contemporain is located at 185 Sainte-Catherine Street West, Place-des-Arts metro. Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Admission: Adults: $8; Seniors: $6; Students: $4; Families: $16. Free admission for children under 12 and members of the Fondation du Musée. Free admission for all on Wednesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. Information: (514) 847-6226. Website: www.macm.org.
The Musée d'art contemporain is a provincially owned corporation funded by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. It receives additional funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts.
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