TRANSIENT Impulsfestival 2023:

...alive: Nature and Music

A central focus of the TRANSIENT projects is to find themes that have meaning in this current time of transition and, together with local communities, to find artistic forms for them in which many can participate.
After “beginning” in 2021, the emerging theme of the laboratory and research phase in 2022 had become … alive: Nature and Music which also offered the opportunity to develop creativity in the aftermath of the flood disaster. The ideas and concepts developed with local partners concretized in two performance phases in 2023 as the second TRANSIENT Impulse Festival.
The artistic works of both performance phases mirrored each other: the places that were played in nature and in public space in June could already be seen in April as artistic reflections in film installations and objects; musical works that were part of the performances lasting several hours in the installations in April could then also be experienced in June at the natural places. The overall picture of the diverse perspectives and impressions was thus created for the audience and participants in the combination of both indoor and outdoor performance phases.
For TRANSIENT Indoor, a unique hybrid organism consisting of several interconnected spaces between art exhibition, concert and performance with music by contemporary composers and installations by Chiharu Shiota, Wiebke Pöpel and Robert Eugler was created at the Academy for Teacher Training in Kronenburg.

TRANSIENT Interdisciplinary Research Ensemble: Neus Estarellas Calderón, piano; Vanessa Porter and Vera Seedorf, percussion; Olivia Stahn, soprano; Jeremias Schwarzer, recorder and artistic direction; Vincent Stange, electronics; Maxine Troglauer, trombone (Junior Fellow 2023)

Works by Younghi Pagh- Paan, Thibault Bru, Malika Kishino, John Cage, George Crumb, Vincent Stange and others.

→ View TRANSIENT Indoor
While the artistic reflection of the natural outdoor spaces into the performance situations and their interactions with the musical works played were in the foreground in TRANSIENT Indoor in April, the places themselves in nature and in public space took on an independent and central role in the TRANSIENT Outdoor performance phase in June. The artists of the TRANSIENT Interdisciplinary Research Ensemble have already begun in 2022 to develop joint projects with the communities of the three places Bad Münstereifel, Blankenheim and Nettersheim on the theme …alive: Nature and Music, which have since been further planned and expanded. At each place, therefore, between June 15 and 18, an artistic work specifically grown there and created for it will take place. The boundaries between the audience and the musicians dissolve, and nature itself, through the cycle of the seasons, changes in an unforeseen way what was begun many months ago. In this way, the landscape, the sounds and the resonant relationships on site play an essential role in shaping the events.

→ View TRANSIENT Outdoor

TRANSIENT Indoor

Installations by Chiharu Shiota, Wiebke Pöpel and Robert Eugler are corresponding with music by Malika Kishino, John Cage, Vera Seedorf, Maxine Troglauer, Vincent Stange a.o.

TRANSIENT Indoor • Installation I

The internationally sought-after artist could be won again this year to develop an installation for this year’s festival theme …alive: Music and Nature. The starting point of this year’s collaboration was Shiota’s installation “Direction of Consciousness”, which was expanded by a sonic-musical level and a spatial concept, through which musicians and audience alike were part of the whole. This included a sound that was continuously present in the space: an electronic composition of sounds from sources of the rivers in the immediate vicinity, designed by the composer Vincent Stange, who was already part of the artistic team as a Junior Fellow in 2021. Emerging from this sound field, the compositions of the three-hour evening were performed. The resonant relationships between space, installations and music continued in the inner courtyard of the Academy in Kronenburg and in the two other exhibition spaces.


TRANSIENT Indoor • Installation II

The installation in the middle room was designed by Freiburg artist Robert Eugler, who used natural materials to subtly and communicatively weave together interior and exterior spaces. Eugler conceived his work during the 2022 research phase, where he also developed various elements of his installation in this room as part of the Academy and served as a mentor to the students. The most expansive object of the installation presented here, a weave of branches and twigs, was originally created for the outdoor area of the Wallgraben in Bad Münstereifel from materials found there and is placed here in the context of other objects. In the context of the performance, which lasted several hours, several natural objects from Robert Eugler’s installation were temporarily used to create an instrument with which the percussionist Vera Seedorf performed a work developed for this purpose.

TRANSIENT Indoor • Installation III

The third room featured an installation by award-winning film director Wiebke Pöpel (German Documentary Film Award Music 2021), whose material had already been filmed in several research phases in 2022 in conjunction with musical actions at special natural locations in the northern Eifel. These places in nature, which can be seen here first in the film, were played in the performance phase TRANSIENT Outdoor in June in the presence of the audience with the same musical works. Through film and live music, different temporal levels are thus interwoven, referring to performances of the past and the future and, as it were, already beginning the future. A central role in this work was played by the work “Ryoanji” by John Cage in a version for recorder and percussion.

TRANSIENT Outdoor

TRANSIENT Outdoor • Performance I – Bad Münstereifel, June 15

Performance with students from St. Michael Gymnasium on the terraces at Wallgraben, Bad Münstereifel

Artists:
Teachers and students from St. Michael Gymnasium: Elke Strauch (art), Thorsten Krause (theater), Sylvia Paustian (music), Sebastian Braun (music)
Vera Seedorf: percussion, concept of school workshops
Frank Reinshagen (TRANSIENT Network Artists Eifel): Saxophone and composition
Maxine Troglauer (TRANSIENT Junior Fellow 2023): Trombone and composition
Jeremias Schwarzer: recorder, artistic direction

TRANSIENT Outdoor • Performance II – Blankenheim, June 17

11:00–11:40 a.m. Villa Rustica (open-air site Alte Römervilla), Blankenheim
Percussion concert by percussion duo “Störsignal” (Vera Seedorf, David Timme)
Works by Iannis Xenakis, Erik Griswold and others.
11:40 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Soundwalk to the source of the Ahr with the percussion duo “Störsignal”

TRANSIENT Outdoor • Performance III – Blankenheim, June 17

12:30 pm Performance/installation at the source of the Ahr
In collaboration with Theo’s Musikschule, Blankenheim and pupils of the Gesamtschule Eifel
Electronic composition Aqua Patterns: Vincent Stange

TRANSIENT Outdoor • Performance IV – Blankenheim, June 17

5:30–7:00 p.m., Kalvarienberg, Blankenheim-Alendorf
Works by John Cage, Thibault Bru, Giacinto Scelsi, Maxine Troglauer and others.
TRANSIENT Interdisciplinary Research Ensemble
Neus Estarellas Calderón: piano
Frank Reinshagen (TRANSIENT Network Artist Eifel): Saxophone and composition
Maxine Troglauer (TRANSIENT Junior Fellow 2023): Trombone and composition
Vera Seedorf: percussion
Vincent Stange: electronic composition/performance
Jeremias Schwarzer: recorder, artistic direction
Members of local music associations

TRANSIENT Outdoor • Performance V – Nettersheim, June 18

4:00–approx. 7:00 p.m.
Performatively staged hike with texts and music through the Genfbachtal valley
Olivia Stahn: voice
Actors from the Nettersheim theater school
Heidrun Grote: concept and direction