Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag
dal 22/2/2007 al 28/4/2007
Segnalato da
22/2/2007
Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag
Wurttembergischer Kunstverein WKV, Stuttgart
The work moves between the fields of electricity research, video, spatial installation and performance. The artist has been in search of the essence of electricity as well as the possibility of domesticating lightening since 2003.
sonArc::project
Introduction
The Berlin artist and composer, Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag, will be presenting his multidisciplinary project, entitled sonArc::project, at the Württembergischen Kunstverein in Stuttgart from the 24. February to the 29. April, 2007. The work moves between the fields of electricity research, video, spatial installation and performance.
Since the 1990s, Sonntag, whose artistic roots reach back to the minimal- and concept art as well as to the so-called new and experimental music, has repeatedly cooperated with scientific laboratories. Alongside the examination of human perception, the question at the centre of his artistic work concerns the visions of modernity – an unfinished project.
With sonArc::project, a project cycle in alternating aesthetic formats, the artist has been in search of the essence of electricity as well as the possibility of domesticating lightening since 2003: that is, in search of the electric/electronic sources and, at the same time, visions of our media age.
Works:
sonArc::ema – (Z) OZONE, 2007
In the cupola of the Kunstverein, Sonntag will attempt to domesticate lightening. Possible bolts of lightening will be directed via the “golden dear“, situated on the top of the building, straight to the exhibition space and controlled from there. Free, high-voltage plasmas and electromagnetic fields will then be sculpturally formed and made experienceable to the senses. The visitor will be able to follow the weather conditions on a computer which is logged into a meteorological early-warning network.
sonArc::ema – RADIAL, 2006
High-voltage installation
Sonntag’s most recent work forms the architectonic focus of the exhibition, the electronic high-voltage installation “sonArc::ema–RADIAL:“ An installation – or rather an interactive “concert“ – comprising four different electromagnetic fields, which can be performed by the audience. Thus, during the opening weekend (23. – 25. Ferbuar 2007), the visitors can surf “wireless,“ through the signals and the noise of the medium-wave “ether,“ and transform this into sound, light and ozon. With “sonArc::ema–RADIAL” Sonntag has created the first and, until now, only electronic instrument that, by means of electricity makes the air oscillate. He will perform the installation himself as a concert, together with his N-solab at the museum night (17. March, 2007).
DYSTOPIA – radial, 2007
Resting on a water membrane with a 600 litre capacity and equipped with earphones, the visitor then submerges into an apparently endlessly falling room. This effect is induced by the electromagnetic waves which directly surround him and which are converted into acoustic and physical oscillations. Only by means of a field of black oil measuring 160 x 160 cm are the oscillations translated into visual wave patterns. Thus, under the copola there emerges an amorphous wave reflection.
sonArc::ion#1, 2005/06
1 channel HD-Video- and 5 channel Sound-Installation, 130 min., Loop
The video and sound installation is based on Sonntag’s opera “sonArc::ion-PROLOGUE“ by means of thunderbolts, the ether and the over 100-year history of electrical/electronic music: from pure RAW-data-extensions via data taken from “Studie2,“ by Karl Heinz Stockhausen (in digital image and sound) to the freely swinging, “singing“ high voltage plasmas, which exchange their data by “talking:” a first, purely electronically produced sound and emission, which the English engineer and inventor, William Duddel already conceived in 1899.
GAMMAvert #2, 1998 - 2006
A X-Seascape
“A museum setting: a White Cube, on the wall a timeless photograph: a seascape, taken from the shore at Travemünder, the place in which I grew up. The chemistry of the film has captured the reflection of light in a moment of calm sea on a grey day. For the enlargement, we worked with an historical tinting procedure – a bronze-brown sea – with uranium nitrate (this makes the photograph extremely durable). A highly sensitive radiological measuring system gauges the free isotopes in the space. A field from the reflections of a deep frequency sine wave is in the architecture, its volume is full of completely green light – the “green ray“ – oscillating at only one frequency/an optical sine wave/the sediments of the Baltic Sea have an activity of between 2 (Arkona) and 190 (Eckernförder Bucht) becquerel per Kg.“ (Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag)
Documentaries
In addition to the installation, the exhibition also comprises documentary material on the myth of electricity. For example, in the piece entitled, Electric World: Commercial, Feature & Fiction, a selection of historical films are presented on the wonderful electrification of the world. They range from the first decades of the 20. century to the “Space Age” of the 1950s and early 1960s.
Interaktiv Performance „sonArc::ema – RADIAL“
Saturday, 24. February 2007, 3 pm
Sunday, 25. February 2007, 3 pm
Image: sonArc::ema – RADIAL, 2006
Opening: 23. February 2007, 7 pm
Wurttembergischer Kunstverein
Schlossplatz 2 - Stuttgart
Opening hours: Tue, Thur - Sun: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm Wed: 11:00 am - 8:00 pm
Admission: 5 / 3 EUR