A sudden spike of voltage, a wave of intensity, a deluge of something uncontainable. This program presents three artists whose works surge with energy and ebb with silence.
We begin - like a raincloud slowly opening - with vocalist Ute Wassermann. The German free improvisation icon will bring her concentrated vocal pitter-patter to the metallic guts of the Stubnitz, splashed through an assortment of objects and membranes. What follows is a set from Hamburg-based sound and performance artist Louise Vind Nielsen. In her practice, which combines poetry, mythology, psychology and sound, frenetic bursts of activity break with long periods of silence and soft synthetic vibrations in explorations of listening, perception and more-than-human relationships. The evening will conclude with the Berlin-based musician bela, whose latest album 'Noise and Cries (굉음과 울음)' for Berlin’s Subtext Recordings will flood out torrentially on-stage. As nihilism born out of a queer experience of precarity living in South Korea transmutes into a desperate will to live, bela’s rasping screams, torchlight and deluges of noise drag the audience through a tumultuous odyssey of the soul.
Curated by:
Supported by Hamburgische Kulturstiftung and Vamh, Verband für aktuelle Musik Hamburg, der Behörde für Kultur und Medien.
Ute Wassermann (Berlin, DE)
Ute Wassermann has studied visual arts (sound installation, performance art) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, and singing at the University of California, San Diego. She tours the world as an improviser, she realises audiovisual voice performances / installations and compositions for soloists and ensembles. At the core of her research is an ongoing and uncompromised exploration of her voice. Ute Wassermann´s otherworldly singing transcends the human voice. She sings multidimensional sculptural sounds oscillating between electronic, animalistic, inorganic and human qualities. Sound environments are an important source for her imagination. Ute creates imaginary acoustic habitats in which her chameleon like voice is tuning in with composed or found soundscapes. Her methods to extend and alienate the voice include the use of bird whistles, lo-fi electronics, resonators, field recordings and different types of microphones. Her performances engage with everyday objects or self invented instruments for voice which can take shape as acoustic costumes.
Louise Vind Nielsen (Hamburg, DE)
Louise Vind Nielsen is a Danish conceptual sound and performance artist based in Hamburg. Her work explores the mystery of how we hear and perceive our surroundings, as well as the interrlations between humans and machines and human-human relations. In a diverse artistic practice that combines elements of poetry, mythology, psychology, music and social engagement, she seeks to explore complex themes with an obscure and humorous approach.
Her work has been shown and heard in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Lithuania, Belgium and Germany and published on MAGIA (Copenhagen), TTT (Hamburg) and Research and Waves (Berlin). She holds a degree in Fine Arts from Det Jyske Kunstakademi in Aarhus, and studied time-based media at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg.
bela (Berlin, DE / Seoul, SK)
Originally from Paju South Korea, bela (they/them) is a musician and a performance artist based in Berlin. They are known for electronic music performance merging pungmul - a Korean folk act rooted in agricultural traditions and linked to past social movements - and vocals inspired by extreme metal. bela shapes pungmul into the ritual for queer rage and grief with sub-heavy distortions and cries.
Their LP “Noise and Cries”, co-released on Subtext UK and Unsound PL in April 2024, debuts their raw vocals for the first time. Spanning over 5 avant-garde basement experiments and 2 grounding lengthy ambient scenes, it comprises a fierce reflection on the precarity of life back in South Korea, queer identity, severance of relationships, and endurance.
Since moving to Berlin in the autumn of 2022, bela has been announced as a participant of SHAPE+ Platform 23'-24'. They have presented their work across different stages in Europe including Berghain, Trauma Bar und Kino, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Cafe OTO, A4 Bratislava among many others. They have performed in experimental music festivals CTM Festival(DE), Ephemera(PL), Unsound Kraków(PL), and Rewire Festival(NL). They also participated in European art festivals transmediale(DE) and EVA International(IE). bela is a co-runner of Sorrow Club: a mixed event series spanning from music to non-music.
* Ermäßigter Eintritt an der Abendkasse für Schüler*innen, Student*innen, Sozialhilfeempfänger*innen.
* Reduced admission at the box office for students and welfare recipients.
