Music has been a subject of visual arts (The Sound of Pictures, State Gallery Stuttgart, 1985) and a subject of intermedia approaches (Fluxus etc.). In this exhibition however, we place a focus on the practice of “New Music” that started institutionalizing between the 1950s and 1970s. It opened up a paradigmatic area of conflict negotiating issues such as authorship, genius and work status. Core pieces of the exhibition are a grand piano, an authentic synthesizer from the 1970s, a copy of the painting Optophon II by Francis Picabia and a large amount of materials and original graphic works.

With post-war avantgarde music production, the conflict between the promise of freedom and stiff regimes such as the orchestral apparatus, copyright law and performing rights came to light. They force forms of segregation and divergence, division of labor, physical discipline and economies, that show pre-bourgeois traits. In visual arts, it’s the other way around – a convergence of media and roles – the relation between author and work however, is split in both visual arts and music.

The installation and performance deal with problematic issues such as the faithfulness of the original, copyright laws and performing rights, but also devises and machines, human individuals and discourses.

Within his work, Michael Dreyer refers to the system “art”, its production conditions and conventions. The core of his work form issues such as authorship, interpretation, technology, economy, authenticity, indexicality and institution as well as their history. Tangible objects are the grand piano, a universal instrument of the 18^th century, texts by Cornelius Cardew, Daniel Buren and many more, Stockhausen as a prototype of a male, narcist, controversial avantgarde composer, the Synthi 100, a universal instrument of pre-digital technology, a painting by Francis Picabia, graphics by Grandville, American cartoons from the 1950s and original graphics and texts.

Daniel Buren’s writings about art, the studio, the art work, the museum, the role of the artist, of the curator and the critic, offer an alternative view on avantgarde music. Female pianist listening to a record of Stockhausen’s electronic sounds, reflects forms and approaches to counterinstitutional art, which can be considered historical by now.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006, 9 pm – Opening
Metabolismus 2 (Introduction: Diedrich Diederichsen)
Christoph Blattmacher, Thilo Kuhn, Werner Nötzer

Monday, Januar 23, 2006, 7 pm – Questioning
„but is it art?“ Werk, Autor, Apparat in der Kunst und der Musik
Wilhelm Beermann, Helmut Draxler, Michael Dreyer, Annette Eckerle, Otto Kränzler, Michael Paukner

Tuesday, Januar 24, 2006 – Performance
Female pianist listening to a record of Stockhausen’s electronic sounds – piano piece Nr. IX by Karlheinz Stockhausen / Patches from ‚Sirius‘ (1977) by Karlheinz Stockhausen with Synthi 100
Lluïsa Espigolé Ibáñez, Otto Kränzler