Linz Brings Together Art, Media and Technology
In 2009, Linz will also be going on a trip around the world. But this will be a virtual journey via the fiber-optic cables and satellite hookups of our globalized Information Society. In cooperation with the Ars Electronica Center and voestalpine AG, 80+1 will spend 80 days traveling to 20 locations worldwide at which the future is being conceived and mastered or thwarted and destroyed. Journalistic, artistic and scientific elaborations on issues such as climate change, terror, genetic engineering, migration and energy supply will provide a detailed reflection of facts & circumstances on the ground in our networked world. On the 81st and last day, all of these places and themes will be brought together once again in the framework of a global conference that will be the highlight of the 2009 Ars Electronica Festival (June 18 to September 6, 2009, Ars Electronica Center and Linzer Hauptplatz; Ars Electronica Festival September 3-8, 2009).In his films, videos and photographic work, Turkish artist Kutlug Ataman brings together elements from the history of Western Modernism and questions its claim to universal validity with an analysis of those much-vaunted European “values.” Mesopotamian Dramaturgies thus raises questions about Europe’s geographical, cultural, institutional, mental and ideological borders (February 13 to April 19, 2009).
Linz will be flooded in 2009. The Klangwolke (Cloud of Sound) follows the stream of mankind’s oldest narratives. By day, wondrous creatures will be making their way through the city, the animal protagonists of ancient fables walking among us. Come evening, scenery set up along the riverbank by the Brucknerhaus will be the setting for a staged drama situated between sinking and rescue (September 5, 2009).
The See this Sound exhibition in the Lentos Museum of Modern Art deals with connecting up image and sound. Audiovisual products and structures are omnipresent and a determinative feature of our world of experience. See this Sound presents and elaborates on forms and phenomena of image and sound production as well as their consequences. The upshot is a fascinating mix at the nexus of cultural history, pop, politics. perception theory and media technology (August 28, 2009 to January 2010).
