Fabien Lévy - the French Composer
Fabien Lévy’s work has been performed by ensembles and soloists across Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. After initially pursuing a scientific career, he decided in 1994 to dedicate himself to his music. He had already been composing since the age of seven, and had studied piano (classic and jazz) and organ, musical analysis, orchestration, musicology, harmony, electro acoustic, and instrumental composition. Lévy also holds a master’s degree in mathematical economics, and before deciding to dedicate himself to music full-time, first worked as a researcher and lecturer in both fields. He currently lives and works in New York and Berlin.
On June 4, the Argento Chamber Ensemble will perform together with French composer Fabien Lévy at the ACFNY. Consisting of nine core members and a chamber orchestra with thirty instrumentalists as well as electronics, the Argento Chamber Ensemble has emerged as one of the world’s premiere contemporary music groups.
Johanna Doderer - the Austrian Composer
Johanna Doderer was born in Bregenz, Austria. She studied composition in Graz and Vienna, where she additionally specialized in film and media composition. Her current work ranges from chamber music to orchestral music and opera. In the immediate future, Johanna Doderer intends to concentrate on opera. Frequent collaborations with numerous musicians from all over the world play an important role in her career. She is working on her fourth opera, A Kind Of Yellow, which tells the story of the life of Ira Hayes. Hayes was an American Indian who went to war against Japan, fighting side by side with the Americans.
On June 17, the ACFNY will host a concert with the Momenta Quartet performing works by Austrian composer Johanna Doderer. Alongside more than forty world premieres featuring both established and up-coming composers, the Momenta Quartet’s repertoire includes standards by masters like Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, consort music of the Renaissance, and 20th-century music.
- Wall Street (2010), C-Print
Krüger & Pardeller
by Eva Stockinger
“We want people to wonder about our works,” says Doris Krüger, one half of the Vienna-based artistic duo Krüger & Pardeller, about their ongoing approach to blur the line between the realms of art, architecture, and design. The two have collaborated since 2004 and are currently artists in residence at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn, where they find themselves in a very unique environment.
The ISCP, located in an old warehouse in East Williamsburg, is a space where international artists and curators come to (net)work and present their artistic production to a New York audience.
Krüger & Pardeller’s recent works – often very big, precisely crafted sculptures and objects, isolate moments of motion. They trace the subject of tension and relaxation, for instance in their work Hit the Grid (2009), where the effects of a tennis ball thrown at a net are explored.
Both in their artistic and curatorial work, Krüger & Pardeller have negotiated the subject of surface tension. They have worked with the Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Foundation in Vienna since 2008 on art exhibitions, conferences, and a publication.
Their objects and sculptures oscillate between architecture and design, often modular and useable as furniture, without compromising their aesthetic autonomy. Inspired by early chronophotography, Krüger & Pardeller have shown room-filling objects frozen in a certain moment of movement or of gravity, that for instance lean dangerously towards the gallery visitors. Most works by Krüger & Pardeller suggest some sort of usability.
In New York, Krüger & Pardeller find their inspiration in the city’s different surfaces, from rugged pavements to strict Midtown building façades, which they trace in their current photographic project. Also in the works is a three-sequenced video in which a camera with rubber bands on both ends is moved through their studio at the ISCP. Once released, the camera quickly moves between the two poles until it comes to a rest in the middle. In one sequence, it captures photos mounted on the wall, reversing the filmic process through moving the camera, not the images, to achieve the illusion of moving images. In another sequence, a pencil is mounted on an arm of the camera, drawing a line on the studio wall. Through the fixation, it almost appears as though the camera is not moving at all, and only when the spectator looks closely do the surface and slightly darker spots of the wall indicate the movement. It is an attempt at measuring the artists’ space with a pencil.
In these recent works, “tension” is now being negotiated as a broader term, including moving images and objects, while simultaneously analyzing its counterpart, relaxation. Krüger & Pardeller have received numerous grants and prices, such as the Austrian National Price for Visual Arts. Their work in New York can be viewed at the Open Studios at the ISCP, 1040 Metropolitan Avenue, from May 8 to16, 2010, daily from 12-6 PM. The opening reception will take place on May 7, 2010, from 5-10 PM.
Krüger & Pardeller will hold a lecture about their works on May 18, 2010, at 7 PM at the ISCP, 1040 Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn.
On May 20, 2010, they will do an audiovisual performance together with the Danish electrojazz band Hess Is More at nublu Club, 62 Avenue C.
For further information see:
Krüger & Pardeller
nublu Club
ISCP
