Kunsthalle Weseke is an implementation of contemporary art shows in a westphalian village. In collaboration with Michael Rieken (Bremen), a program of 14 exhibitions in 2018 and 2019, performances and video presentations was presented to the village and the rural region.
in collaboration with
„Ich-Orgel“ (I-Organ) by Michael Rieken & Stefan Demming is a tool for an an audiovisual performance.
Rieken & Demming
präsentieren (( presenteeren // present ))
av performance (9/2017 in extracts)
1. Pankratiuskerk, Haaksbergen (NL)
&
2. Stiftskerk, Weerselo (NL)
in collaboration with / in Zusammenarbeit mit Michael Rieken
(deutsche Version unten)
„Ich-Orgel“ (I-Organ) is a reactive sound and light installation as well as a tool for an an audiovisual performance. It creates electronic interpretations of organ samples by J.S. Bach. When a visitor activates the composition of 6 different tracks / speakers, he can navigate from one channel to another by moving his head slowly to one of the coloured circles that symbolize the sound layers. In addition, the body moments are adding up to a timebased portrait of the player that’s expressed in the 6×7-pixel-display expressed by 42 globe light bulbs. Watch a documentation of the av performance i organ – video.
„Ich-Orgel“ – Einladung zum meditativen Komponieren
„Ich-Orgel“ von Stefan Demming und Michael Rieken ist eine interaktive Klang-Licht-Installation, bei der Kameraaufnahmen von Besuchern in eine klangliche Komposition und skulpturale Lichtinstallation übertragen werden.
Indem Ausstellungsbesucher einem Feld aus Glühbirnen gegenübertreten, hauchen sie diesem durch ihre Anwesenheit Leben ein. Die Bewegungen haben dabei Einfluss auf eine Komposition aus Klängen, die Orgelwerken von J. S. Bach entstammen.
Dekolonialwarenladen – how to decolonize …? (2024 – )
GeOrgel – An interactive polyphonic organ-installation from upcycled furniture (2022-2025)
AkA- Atelier für kulturelle Angelegenheiten (2020–2021) – context-specific works on the countryside
KUNSTHALLE WESEKE (2018-2019)– contemporary art shows in a village
LEBENDIG PLATT (2016-2018) – a video project on lowgerman, a dissapearing language
LUURN BI DE BUERN (2014–2016) – a project on agriculture with site specific works on farms and happenings (momentarily offline)
THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH (2010-2014) – a project on circus as a byegone cultural event
A group photo at a baptism is stopped in the moment the flash goes off. A video about photography as a ritual and the simultaneity of speed and stillness of the electronic image. Everybody tries to look good for that moment, hoping to look good for eternity.
„See also texts of Frauke Ellssel and Elke Bippus on this work.
At a crossroad in Poland pigeons and people start to tremble in repetitive loops: a series of single frames in fast repetition with only small variations. You are at the red light: „Please wait!“
Music: Brigitta Muntendorf
A tourist is posing for the image at different places in a village by the seaside. Finally something happens, a drowning girl and a rescuer with a mask play a role in fragments of a story.
Depending on the amplitude of the music, the image is constantly cut into stripes of changing sizes.
The video Weltuntergang shows a thunderstorm through an open window. The lightnings are edited in a way that they appear quickly after each other. In addition, there‘s artificial photoflashes that illuminate the inside of the room. The flashes cause interferences that make the image on a crt display seem to tremble. When printed as a still image, this creates light stripes.
SD Video, PAL. colour, stereo, 5‘02‘‘, 2009
Based on the film „Les parapluies de Cherbourg“ by Jacques Demy (1964) an audiovisual composition evolved that reduces the narrative elements of the original movie by turning short sequences into transformative loops. As all dialogues in the original were sung, the repetitions create melodic rhythms. In synchronized beats, the sampling of the sound goes along with the visual rhythm of the composition. The actors look like virtual singing sculptures and the grammar of the movie can be examined.
The seesaw chamber – scenarios of the sea (original title: Schaukelkammer)
mixed media installation, 2011
mixed media, 6 channel audio, light controllers, 1 video projection, 1 computer with custom software, 1 video loop on a monitor.
DOWNLOAD CATALOGUE „Szenarien der Meere“ (deutsch/german only)
The seesaw chamber combines cinematic orchestrations and arranges it in rhythmic structures that correspond to different events in the space.
Depending on the film footage the mood of the soundtrack is changing and by this evoking cliché-like topics of old seafare movies where it comes from. Simultaneously to actions in the projected images, the space is animated: a winch is driven and makes sounds, air is blown under a fabric so that it looks like waves, a bell is rung before the storm, an accordion plays a long tone after the drowning. The telescope-object shows filmic telescope views and puts their meaning in a new context.
The elements are composed according to musical and narrative principles in this choreography of audiovisual events.
Text: Johannes Ismaiel-Wendt, Stefan Demmings Schaukelkammer – Szenarien der Meere (german only)
