SPINET- AN EXPERIMENT ON TOTAL ART WORK
BY BIRGIT RAMSAUER
15.12.2011
The conceptual visual artist Birgit Ramsauer, creator of Spinet, joined by
a group of more than 15 collaborating international artists try to shed light on the question “What is Total art work (Gesamtkunstwerk) in the 21stcentury?” with panel discussions and performance of works associated with the project.
The project is concieved as a piece of Total art work itself:
a multidisciplinary event originating from and refering to the „spinet“, a historical keyboard instrument from the 16th century belonging to the harpsicord family. At the same time, it is a symposium on Total art work.
Ramsauer’s spinet is a reconstruction of an original Rococo instrument by the world-famous “Workshops for Historical Instruments” of J.C.Neupert in Bamberg/Germany. The artist has turned the instrument into a contemporary art installation where the past meets the present in color and form. The corpus of the instrument is green on the outside,the inside is painted yellow, andthe top is taped with fluorescent gafferstape. The tape lines are crossing in the center of the top, where the support is placed. On the backside of the top the stripes are running out in a regular order system.
Collaborators
Collaborators participating include Jens Barnieck, pianist; Aldo Brizzi, composer, conductor; Frieder Butzmann, composer; Gloria Coates, composer, actor; Enrico Cocco,
composer; Gearoid Dolan, artist; Pär Frid, composer; Stefano Giannotti, composer; Heinrich Hartl, composer; Thea Herold, word performer, author; Horst Lohse, composer; Christopher McIntyre, associate music curator The Kitchen; Aloisia Moser, philosopher; Charlie Morrow, composer; Wolf-Dieter Neupert, workshops for historical instruments, author; the dancers and choreographers Jeremy Nelson and Luis Lara Malvacias; Georg Nussbaumer, composer; Katharina Rosenberger, composer; Birgit Ramsauer, artist; David Grahame Shane, architect, urbanist, author; Gerd Stern, poet, artist; and a DJ.
History
The installation spinet, first exhibited at the International Music Fair in Vienna, Austria, and Frankfurt/M., Germany, in 2003, became the unexpected inspiration for two composers who each dedicated a piece to this installation. Several more artists were asked to participate, who in turn invited others .The process of collecting pieces of art associated withspinet grew into a piece of art itself. A piece of Total art work. The team spirit, the democratic approach to the project, however, made it feel different. The main idea was not to dictate idea and form, but to have artists come and contribute what they think was appropriate. Which led to the question, „Is this the way Totalart works in the 21st century?“.
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