AMBITUS

The fine arts and music have become more and more intertwined in recent years. This has made it increasingly difficult to ascribe one or the other genre to a growing body of works. We are seeing performance and video artists making use of existing and/or new music, while musicians and composers are incorporating visual elements into their artistic works. Due to a pragmatic and intensive exchange between numerous artists and interweaving genres, an array of complex groups of works has arisen. This new development was the focus of a large-scale, three-part exhibition by the Kunstmuseum Magdeburg. The first part of the exhibition at the Kunstmuseum presented selected sound installations and video works, and highlighted the correlations between these genres. From September to October 2018, the curators staged an installation along the Elbe River extending almost two kilometres titled the “Water Walk”, an obstacle course of sound sculptures and acoustic installations which will remain in place after the project has concluded. The third part featured an extensive concert programme at the Haus für Musik. In addition to presenting contemporary trends, the venue has been used to present hybrid forms of live music and live painting as spatial image-art experiences.

Artistic director: Annegret Laabs
Musical director: Carsten Gerth
Curators: Sandra Naumann, Uwe Gellner
Artists: Candice Breitz, William Engelen, Jonas Englert, Brian Eno, Douglas Henderson, Annika Kahrs, Rainer Kohlberger, Christina Kubisch, Kaffe Matthews, Bjørn Melhus, Michaela Melián, People Like Us (Vicki Bennett), Anri Sala, Marc Sabat, Mareike Lee, Yehudit Sasportas and others