Art’s Birthday 2016 #3. In the Café Sonore Special in honour of Art’s Birthday 2016 you can listen to all the fine things that has been send into air via global stations for four hours long. A couple of expected and unexpected guests will also show up and a number of radio plays, created on the spot, will take place under the instructions from Lukas Simonis (Dr. Klangendum).
In short, it will become a genuine Fluxus evening of varied entertainment.
EBU-Ars Acustica Group:
For several years the international Ars Acustica Group of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) organizes a large-scale radio event in honour of this Art’s Birthday. The national stations from Europe, but also independent radio stations from all over the make an annual four-hour radio show, that is transmitted via two EBU broadcasting satellites (with the appropriate names Haydn and Liszt). That evening artists, musicians and sound artists will be present in several radio studios across the world to broadcast live acoustic gifts into the air. Every station has received an amount of time on one of the satellites so the pieces can be heard everywhere.
Fluxus:
Art’s Birthday is a typical Fluxus event. Fluxus was established in the 1960s. At that time it was mainly the art movement that broke taboos and exploited the experiment on all levels. The word Fluxus was used for the first time round 1961 by George Maciunas, who is considered as the founder of this movement, for art events where the boundaries between the visual art and music were removed. Two most famous Dutch Fluxus artists are undoubtedly Willem de Ridder (who will make an appearance as guest if all goes well) and Wim T. Schippers. And then there are many international artists who felt attracted to Fluxus. For instance composer John Cage, but also video artist Nam Yune Paik, visual artist Joseph Beuys and composer La Monte Young.
Robert Filliou:
On 17 January 1963 Robert Filiou declared that one million years ago someone threw a dry sponge in a bucket of water. This moment marks the birth of art according to Filiou. Ten years later the first real ‘celebration’ took place: the one million and tenth anniversary of Art.
That took place in the Neue Galerie in Aachen (Germany). Filliou died in 1987, but several artists sustained the use of La Fête Permanente, like Filliou described it himself, by continuing the celebration of the Art in the form of mail art, faxmail and slow scan television. A type of internet art before the term existed.
Henry Vega:
For years and years Café Sonore has been the radio platform that works with Art’s Birthday celebrations. The very first contribution to Art’s Birthday from Café Sonore, more than 10 years ago and under the direction of the VPRO, was also a collaboration with the Concertzender. And now once again they are joining in……a new work by Henry Vega, his Sponge Suite. Vega, a composer and electro musician of American origin, will perform this work live at the studio. He will be doing this together with Belgian singer and sound artist Aurelie Lierman. It will take place from 22.20 – 22.30. Then it will be heard live on the satellite.
Henry Vega about Sponge Suite: “The piece refers to the birth of art and plays a homage to this unholy action which arguably infected us all with the terminal need for it. The piece takes and steals materials from different places including the very same birthday card given in this sound occasion. What I make of it steals from my own work as well, including music from the film Symmetry as well as the Wormsongs set.”
concept, producer, host: Armeno Alberts.
production: Hessel Veldman.
sound engineer: Lon van den Akker.
radio play interruptions: Lukas Simonis & Guests.
support: Sem de Jongh, Monique Bouter, Katja van Nus.
special thanks to: EBU Ars Acustica Group.
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