Kunsthalle for Music

From January 25, 2018 till March 3, 2018, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam will turn into the Kunsthalle for Music, a contemporary space for the live exhibition of musical works. 
 
“Music is not necessarily what you think it is. Can we imagine a space for music that exists outside of any media and beyond the stage? A space for un-recordable music, music of undefined duration, existing even when no audience is present? A dissolution of performer and audience, of rehearsal and performance? How can we imagine contemporary music, composition, and music performance as contemporary art today?”
–from Ari Benjamin Meyers’ manifesto for the Kunsthalle for Music.
 
Kunsthalle for Music is a project by Ari Benjamin Meyers investigating and researching what it means to create a new institution for music in an art context today. Departing from historical precedents situated at the cross-section of music and visual art, Kunsthalle for Music instantiates—for the first time—a “musical situation” in which the ensemble itself, and their enacting of performance-based repertory, wholly constitutes the exhibition.

Ensemble 
The Kunsthalle for Music ensemble forms the heart of the Kunsthalle for Music, consisting of eight musician-performers. An open-call for musicians of all types, backgrounds and skill-levels resulted in the following ensemble: Bergur Thomas Anderson (guitar), Billy Bultheel (piano), Sandhya Daemgen (violin and voice), Sara Hamadeh (violin), Alexander Iezzi (drums and percussion), Nanna Ikonen (saxophone and electronics), Jackson Moore (saxophone), and Pau Marquès i Oleo (cello).

Commissions
The ensemble performs newly commissioned works by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Jonathan Bepler, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, and The Residents. Over the course of the exhibition each of the commissioned artists work on-site, activating their scores directly with the ensemble in both rehearsals and performances open to the public. Each commission is incorporated as part of Kunsthalle for Music’s evolving repertoire. For secondary school groups, Andre Heuvelman develops a special education commission.

Repertoire
Kunsthalle for Music repertoire comprises a diverse range of existing and adapted pieces contributed by artists and composers including Wojtek Blecharz, Tim Etchells, Peter Fengler, Hassan Khan, Sora Kim, Yoko Ono, Anri Sala, Superflex, and Guido van der Werve amongst others. The exhibition also includes a number of Meyers’ performance-based music works.

Founding of the Kunsthalle for Music
The Kunsthalle for Music is commissioned by Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art (Rotterdam) together with Spring Workshop (Hong Kong). An exposition, not an exhibition by Ari Benjamin Meyers unfolded the Kunsthalle’s foundational themes at Spring Workshop (March 11–April 1, 2017), taken up by “Music is Not! A Symposium On and Around the Kunsthalle for Music” at Witte de With (May 26–27, 2017), with contributions by Armen Avanessian (Philosopher, Literary & Political Theorist), Victoria Ivanova (Writer and Curator), Peter Osborne (Professor of Modern European Philosophy), Francois Quintin (Director, Lafayette Anticipations), Marie-France Rafael (Art Historian), Jörn Schafaff (Art Historian), and Lisette Smits (Curator), amongst others.

Kunsthalle for Music Team
Artistic Director: Ari Benjamin Meyers
Founding Directors: Ari Benjamin Meyers, Defne Ayas, Mimi Brown
Team: Rosa de Graaf, Patrick C. Haas, Christina Li, Anja Lindner, Samuel Saelemakers
Design: APFEL (A Practice for Everyday Life)
Ensemble: Bergur Thomas Anderson, Billy Bultheel, Sandhya Daemgen, Sara Hamadeh, Alexander Iezzi, Nanna Ikonen, Jackson Moore, Pau Marquès i Oleo

Contact Kunsthalle for Music
For inquiries and schedule of activities, as well as more information on the ensemble and repertoire, please write to contact [​at​] kunsthalleformusic.org or visit the website: www.kunsthalleformusic.org.

Funding
Kunsthalle for Music is partly supported by the Goethe-Institut, Institut français and the Mondriaan Fund.