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Max Mueller Bhavan | India Bangalore

Freya Hattenberger & Peter Simon
bangaloREsidents@SRISHTI

Freya & Peter - Profile © © Cordula Kaltenbrunn Freya & Peter - Profile © Cordula Kaltenbrunn
Freya Hattenberger
and Peter Simon are graduates of the Academy of Media Art/ Kunsthochschule für Medien, Cologne.

Freya Hattenberger received the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Bursary and the NRW prize for emerging artists in media art. Further scholarships and multiple residencies were held in France. Mainly performative, body and (social) space are the central aspects of photography, video performances, video and sound installations. Sound and the use of voice are key elements of her work. She is particularly interested in questions of representation, behaviour and autonomy.

Peter Cezary Simon focuses on sound art, time-based media and installation. His works are in the collection IMAI - intermedia art institute Düsseldorf and also part of the permanent collection of the ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology Karlsruhe. As a curator he organised the sound art programme "Lautsprecher" in Museum Ostwall Dortmund from 2010 - 2015. In 2018 he received together with Freya Hattenberger and Marita Loosen-Fox the Gerd Ruge-Stipend of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.  His key activities are sound ecology, psycho acoustics, bio acoustics, and their impact on society and individuals.

In addition to their own artistic work, Freya and Peter have both been cooperating since 2008 as a sound-art performance duo named "Les Éclairs" interrogating questions of space, resonance, feedback and social constellations. Their field of work includes sculptural sound and video installations, sound installations in public space, multi-channel sound compositions, performances and radio plays, as well as documentary forms of the auditive, like essays and features (eg for Studio Acoustic Art WDR, Bavarian Radio (BR), NDR and Deutschlandradio Kultur).
 
"MEANDER TAPES - Tender Sounds For Brutalist Architecture" is a project dealing with sound, performance and architecture in an interdisciplinary manner. As sound artists, composers and media artists they have long been concerned with the interaction between the audible and the visible - as well the invisible side of architecture. In direct dialogue with brutalist architecture, they realise acoustic interventions and sound performances on site. They create a connection which takes into account specific acoustic and formal spatial characteristics as well as the socio-historic context.

After Meander Tapes sessions in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Bochum, Peter and Freya plan to spot modernist buildings in Bangalore and trace their significance in public-political processes. Charles Correa is a highly significant architect, globally and for India. His work is the physical manifestation of modernity and progress. The Visvesvaraya Centre represents a crossroads of traditions and gives opportunity for a more than fruitful project. With acoustic interactions on site at the Visvesvaraya Centre and recordings of these sessions, they wish to realise a new Meander Tape in Bangalore. Their particular interest is exploring the geometric order, materiality, social status, emotional link of the building and the fluid reality of Indian culture, focusing on sound as ornament.

Architecture is experimentally "reconsidered" by the medium of sound and extended in its perception. Taping the acoustic fingerprint of Visvesvaraya Center allows them to get in exchange and collaboration with residents, local artists, musicians and the students of Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology. In their project they consider the interaction of place, architecture, people and their lives. The edition of a new Bangalore Meander Tape on cassette will reflect that. In collaboration with CEMA at Srishti Institute, they will give lectures and a workshop about the results of their research.
 

Final Report

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