Phill Niblock: The Movement of People Working
silent green + singuhr – projekte present
24 hours film-video-sound for the 90th birthday of Phill Niblock
Eight simultaneous projections of films/videos from the series The Movement of People Working, permanent electronic drone compositions and every two hours live performances by 12 musicians playing compositions written for them by Phill Niblock.
The Movement of People Working by Phill Niblock is a huge cinematic-musical monument. More than 25 hours of film, shot since 1973, initially on 16 mm colour film, later with video and digital technology in Peru, Mexico, Hungary, Hong Kong, Brazil, Lesotho, Portugal, China and Japan, on Sumatra and in the Arctic. Films that show nothing more than manual labour. Documentary, extremely minimalist editing, Niblock presents people in their daily activities and tasks. Hammering, sawing, grinding, harvesting, dyeing, fishing, and much more - work in its most elementary form. Phill Niblock's minimalist and monumental compositions with their slowly unfolding microtonal drones belong to this film material. Multiple layers of sound material create a continuum of sonic movement and pulsations with an extremely dense texture.
These films include compositions by Phill Niblock. With their slowly unfolding microtonal drones created by multiple layers of sound material, they are – like the films – extremely minimalist. A continuum of sonic movement and pulsations with a dense inner texture. Music and films can be freely combined. Niblock is concerned with a free interplay of film and music that leads to ever new juxtapositions of image and sound. The method of performance is also variable. Spatial-installative settings are just as possible as performative installations and live acts.
For Phill Niblock's 90th birthday, the piece is now being presented in a special form – a 24-hour film-video-sound installation in which Niblock's films run in a loop on eight large video screens on the walls of Betonhalle. This is accompanied by Niblock's permanent compositions, complemented by live performances. The programme includes works from Niblock's most diverse creative periods. Musicians from the Berlin scene who have been playing his music for years have been invited to perform. Most of the works on the programme were composed especially for them.
21:00 Katie Porter & Lucio Capece (Bass Clarinets) - K&L for KL
23:00 Biliana Voutchkova (Violin) - Unipolar Dance
01:00 Anna Clementi (voice) - Zound Delta I
03:00 Thomas Ankersmit (Serge Synthesizer) - Surge 2 (UA)
05:00 Seth Josel (Guitar) - Sethwork
07:00 Robyn Schulkowsky (drums) - Timpani
09:00 Deborah Walker (Violoncello) - Herbal Cooled 2
11:00 Jens Brand (Motors) - ExplMotors
13:00 Anna Clementi (voice) - Zound Delta II (UA)
15:00 Lucy Railton (Violoncello) - Harm
17:00 Nicola Hein (guitar) - poom
19:00 Natalia Pschenitschnikova (flute) - Nataliawork
and Phill Niblock (composition, sound direction)
21:00–21:00
Katherine Liberovskaya: Rake, video-sound installation (2015-16, 35:00 min, HD, Color, Stereo)
The video-sound installation Rake by Katherine Liberovskaya will be presented in parallel in the lounge on the ramp of Betonhalle. A hypnotizing 35 minute long take of an extreme close-up of the boundary between sand and water through the tines of a rake. The raked sand forms constantly changing organic shapes endlessly rising from the ground and crumbling while different bodies (shells, small jellyfish, stones…) get caught and released in the path of the rake's progress. Created during a residency at iii/Studio Loos, Den Haag, Holland, 2015
Phill Niblock was born in Anderson Indiana in 1933. Since 1960 he has been working with music/sound, film, photography, video and computers. His works belong in the context of minimal art. Niblock's powerful, microtonal drones, often presented together with film or video works, interact with the acoustic of the performance space to generate immersive soundscapes. His Intermedia Art is a combination of minimalist music, conceptual art, structural cinema, systematic or even political art and has actively contributed to changing our perception and experience of time. Since 1985 he has been director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent, and curator of the record label XI. He lives in New York.
Artistic director: Carsten Seiffarth
Presented by silent green and singuhr - projekte.
Supported by Musikfonds e.V. with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.
Saturday, 21–Sunday, 22 October
Betonhalle
Opening hours: 9 pm – for 24 hours – 9 pm
Admission within the 24 hours: 14/10 €
Tickets