REPORT FROM BREGENZ/VIENNA

KUNST IN DER STADT II/ART IN THE CITY II
IMMERSIVE SOUND

While some parts of the summerlong event KUNST IN DER STADT II in Bregenz
are still on,
the IMMERSIVE SOUND -on air-on line -on site installation has closed down
as planned on Aug 15th (together with some other elements of ART IN THE
CITY II which were supposed to go on until the end of the month: the event
which emphasized sound installations - some of them in the public space -
ran into considerable resistance from part of the population and part of
the regional press. Dramatic climax: a priest destroyed the receivers
placed in his church for Bill Fontanas installation 'Aerial Water'...the
priest became a hero of the anti-public-sound-art-fraction which even
started to collect money for their 'Don Camillo'  as he had to pay for the
destroyed equipment...Many other anecdotes are funny and bizarre in
hindsight but were not so funny for the artists working in Bregenz. The
difficulties underlined once again the fact that sound-installations need
even more careful mediating by curators, artists, media etc. than any other
art works in the public space...)

The website of ART IN THE CITY II can be found at

http://thing.at/orfkunstradio/

A Kunstradio team (Eva Wohlgemuth together with Hans Groiss, Maria Schubert
and Robert Adrian X ) set up the website for ARS IN THE CITY II. Take some
time to surf through this extensive page which is still being worked on and
also contains the project IMMERSIVE SOUND.

http://thing.at/orfkunstradio/BREGENZ/IS/index.html

P.S.: obviously it is still very difficult even for curageous curators and
exhibition makers inside the art system to comprehend that a website is or
could be a vital part of an on site exhibition. The organisers in Bregenz
never even thought of publicizing the adress of the KUNST IN DER STADT
website. They failed to understand that the website was an
additional project in the public space - even though it was commissioned by
them...

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A short summary of IMMERSIVE SOUND
a live on site-on line- on air installation
produced by KUNSTRADIO
July 10th - August 15th 1998