Georg Klein

Georg Klein (* 1st March 1964 in Germany) is a composer, sound and video artist. He lives in Berlin.

The artist Georg Klein mainly works in site-specific art in public space („sound situation“) with sound, including light, texts and later also video ("transition" 2001, "Ortsklang Marl Mitte" German Sound Art Award 2002, "Imperial News" 2003). He created new concepts of interaction and participation in music and visual art („Interactive Variation“). With his project "TRASA" (2004/2006) he got well-known international: he extended public space by connecting two cities for two months in an inter-medial way ("Be-medial Space of Contact" in six cities of Europe). Therefore he developed a concept of interactive media art at certain urban places (subway entrance halls). With the suisse performance artist Steffi Weismann he created dialogical, interactive installations in public space ("pickup" 2005 and "takeaway" 2006) and in his installation "turmlaute.2: watch tower" (2007) he worked with a fake by founding a new political organisation which provoked strong reactions in public (see http://www.europeanborderwatch.org). In 2006 he awarded the MEDIA-Space-Prize of NRW (Germany).Georg Klein studied sound engineering at the Technical University in Munich and Berlin, later on philosophy of religion and ethno-musicology at the Free University of Berlin. From 1991-94 he was assistant in a project on the visualizing of sound for deaf people at the Technical University of Berlin. Since 1996 he has worked freelance as composer, with film music („amor fati“, Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin 1997), solo works with live electronics, works for ensembles (International Gustav-Mahler-Composition Prize 1999, Austria), and also music for theatre (Peer Gynt with Peter Zadek / Berliner Ensemble, 2004). Studies on computer music and sensor controlled live-electronics at the Electronical Studio of the Technical University of Berlin. In 1999 founding of "comaberlin: production of inter-medial art | investigation, development and realisation of sound situations". In 2003 he founded KlangQuadrat / Sound Square, Office for Sound and Media Art in Berlin with Julia Gerlach for organizing and producing sound and media projects at home and abroad.

works (selection)

* "amor fati" (film music, Intern. Filmfestspiele Berlin 1997)
* "Li.. und die Erde I+II" (Intern. Gustav-Mahler-Composition Prize Austria 1999)
* "transition - berlin junction" (Sound Art Scholarship Berlin 2000/2001)
* "Ortsklang Marl Mitte - blaues blach - VielKunst.WenigArbeit" (First German Sound Art Award 2002)
* "wel-come" (Scholarship Art House Wiepersdorf)
* "Imperial News" (Red Town Hall Berlin 2003, Scholarship Stiftung Kulturfonds)
* "PeerGynt" - Stage music / Musical. Direction, Berliner Ensemble, Director: Peter Zadek, 2004-2008)
* "TRASA warszawa-berlin, A bi-medial Space of Contact" (Warsaw-Berlin 2004)
* "pickup - An Intervention in a Kiosk" in coop. with Steffi Weismann (Bern 2005)
* "DADAyama" in coop. with Tetsuo Furodate (Berlin 2006)
* "takeaway" in coop. with Steffi Weismann, "sonambiente" Intern. Sound Art Festival (Berlin 2006)
* "turmlaute.1: Hungerturm | Starvation Tower" (Rom, Scholarship German Academie Villa Massimo/Casa Baldi, 2006)
* "turmlaute.2: Wachturm | Watch Tower" (MaerzMusik Berlin 2007)
* "meta.stasen | meta.stases" (Europ. Centre of Arts Hellerau, Dresden 2007)
* "thankyou China - PCAir-Medienrohr" (Media-Space-Award NRW 2006)
* "venture doll" in coop. with Steffi Weismann (Los Angeles 2008)
* "SoundEye" (China 2008)

Catalogs/Reviews

* "From the sound installation to the sound situation" In: Organized Sound 8/2, 2003 (Cambridge University Press)
* "Electronic in New Music: Interactive Variation" 2006, ISBN-13: 978-3-936000-15-3
* "transition - berlin junction, eine klangsituation" Catalog, 2001, ISBN 3-89727-178-8
* "Deutscher Klangkunstpreis" Catalog, 2002, ISBN 3-924790-62-0
* "TRASA warszawa-berlin" Katalog, 2004, ISBN 3-936636-43-5
* "sonambiente Sound Art Festival" Catalog, 2006, ISBN 13: 978-3-936636-93-2
* "Unter freiem Himmel - Klangkunst im öffentlichen Raum" In: musik|politik, BGNM-Jahrbuch 2002. ISBN 3-89727-257-1
* Prof. Kazuo Uehara "Sound Art in re-unioned City of Berlin". Osaka Univers. Journal of Arts No.18, 2002
* Dr. Christa Brüstle: "TRASA - Kontaktraum zwischen Warschau und Berlin". In: Positionen 62 (Mühlenbeck b. Berlin, 2005)
* Dr. Barbara Barthelmes: "Georg Klein oder der Künstler als Orts-Seher." In: Katalog TRASA warszawa-berlin. Kehrer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 2004
* Prof. Doris Kolesch: "Gehör-Gänge - Zu Georg Kleins Klangsituation „transition“ in Richard Serras Skulptur „Berlin Junction“." Art lecture 2002. SFB Kulturen des Performativen, Freie Universität Berlin.
* Volker Sträbel: "Transition der Klänge", Frankfurter Allg. Zeitung (FAZ) 08/2001.
* Dr. Sabine Sanio: "im vorübergehen? kunst und eingedenken" In: textbuch transition, Pfau-Verlag (Saarbrücken, 2001)

External links

* [http://www.georgklein.de Website of the artist (german/english) ]
* [http://www.klangquadrat.com KlangQuadrat/SoundSquare - office for sound and media art Berlin]
* [http://www.bgnm.de Berlin Society of New Music]
* [http://www.sonambiente.net/de/04_artists/4M2kle_werk.html "sonambiente" Sound Art Festival, Interactive takeaway wagon]
* [http://www.dradio.de/dkultur/sendungen/artsbirthday/454508/ DeutschlandRadio Arts Birthday with "DADAyama"]
* [http://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/de/archiv/festivals2007/02_maerzmusik07/mm_07_ausstellungen/mm_07_klein/Klanginstallation_1.php Berliner Festspiele: "Tower Music"]

Persondata
NAME= Klein, Georg
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Artist, Composer, Sound artist, Media artist
DATE OF BIRTH= 1964