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KG AUGENSTERN - Circles and Cycles

Format: BOOK + CD Label & Cat.Number: Gruenrekorder GRUEN 202/20 Release Year: 2020 Note: after the obscure, hyper conceptual sound art "Tentacles" release on the same label, a like-minded offering by KG AUGENSTERN from Berlin: recordings from scratching surfaces with a special fiberglass tentacle, this time made on abandoned places and ruins in Sicilia and accompanied with video recordings of the sites, also using sheep wool and clay, which lead to an exhibition in Palermo; - comes wtih a very nice 60 page art book with many s/w and colour photos, texts, notes.. Price (incl. 19% VAT): €18.00 More Info Kg Augenstern (Christiane Prehn and Wolfgang Meyer) have been exploring the world for many years with their “Tentacles,” extendable fiberglass canes that allow them to touch and extract the sounds of the places they are travelling through. These tentacles have become a kind of prostheses to generate subtle experiences that require attentive listening. The various aspects of the project are constantly transformed and presented as audiokinetic installations, live-streams, radio broadcasts or sound installations in contemporary art spaces. In autumn 2019, the artists explored places in Sicily that have been abandoned within the last few decades. With their tentacles, they scratched circles on the surface of these contemporary ruins to reveal the specific sounds of the various surfaces and their surroundings. A camera installed in the center of the circles recorded the images. The research was accompanied by experiments with raw sheep’s wool and clay as materials corresponding to the ephemeral appearance and transitory atmosphere of the places. The outcome of the research was presented as an exhibition in an old prayer hall in Palermo. The CD invites listeners to explore 10 abandoned places, including the location of the final exhibition. 11 Tracks (37′44″) Book & CD (500 copies) KG Augenstern’s “tentacle” performs surgeries on abandoned places. The duo from Berlin seeks out locations that lie between the states of life and death, populated and depopulated, places constantly changing, and thus in an enduring state of malleable equilibrium. They are the apocalyptic souvenirs of humans’ attempts to form landscapes. That which exists tends towards new shapes, which slowly bury mankind’s contingencies and intentions. The forgotten place and its surfaces are scratched in circles. The media to be studied are the subtle sounds caused by the scratching. At times the tentacle glides lightly along the surface, barely touching; on another pass it might bite in, leaving a mark. It stretches itself out, or blends with the material beneath it, all the while releasing its tensions in the form of deep, diffused sound vibrations. Or it springs in powerful leaps across the ground beneath it. An intense sound is called forth, rhythmic and repetitive, embedded in the temporal cycles of the described circles. Time is rendered instable, volatile, surreal, and reveals its magic. The process is repeated in the same or another location. The combinations of time and material transform themselves into a cyclical continuum. KG Augenstern creates an additional cycle out of sheep’s wool, clay, and fire. From materials found in the ruins, burned objects are created which are fragile and subordinate to their own disintegration. The observer slips outside the field of consciousness, and attention is directed towards the revelation of baselessness, not from within the realm of understanding, but in the form of realization in a material sense. Life is transformed into a question, and this uncertainty reveals the instability of existence. Ennio Pellicanò Curator Step by step, staying in this lonely place by the sea, with that empty beach, working in all these ruins without ever seeing any living person, only birds– mostly pigeons–, insects, and lizards, a kind of hypnotic, apocalyptic dimension develops. In almost every place there is an abandoned camp somebody homeless used to use a long time ago for a temporary shelter, with worn out clothes and an old mattress. Shy dogs: one, a German shepherd with two puppies vacillates between being curious and afraid, same as me. Circle by circle, rubbish, wet walls, cracked ceilings, holes to take care of and another uncertain stairway. Contemporary archeology in contemporary ruins. Disgust, fear, tension, expectations. Layers of birdshit on children‘s toys, suddenly left behind, hard material under soft organic patina…. a baby carriage, furniture, pictures on the walls and beds still made …what will wait in the next room, the next building, the next structure? SCRATCHING A LIDO Lido Las Vegas was built in the ’60s and was closed by the authorities in 2017. Before its closure, it had been run illicitly within a nature reserve, and without any authorization, state concession, or certificate of use. It is a wooden structure with small rooms for summer guests, a restaurant and a playground for children. A solid, newer but also abandoned structure with more rooms was built just beside. The scratching circles were recorded on the terraces, between the rooms and next to the playground. The surface is tiles, sand, rubbish, wood and stones. Everything is sandy. The waves of the sea can be heard in the background. SCRATCHING A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE Cunziria is a village the dates of whose founding as an urban nucleus are unknown, but it is known that in the 1920s a slow decline began, until the 1960s, when the artisan practice of tanning stopped. Some houses have been restored but left behind unfinished and are now used as stables. In one house we found raw sheep’s wool covering the ground. At a nearby sheep farm, the farmer offered us plenty of raw wool for free. The scratched circles are partly inside and partly outside of the houses. Sometimes it was hard to move the tentacle through the plants covering the buildings. One of the circles is performed inside of a cellar, with basins formerly used for tanning. The surface varies from dense, thorny bush, stones, mud and clay to tiled floor in the restored rooms. In the background it is possible to hear sheep and sheep bells, birds, and from time to time a car on the close-by small road. SCRATCHING A COMMERCIAL AREA Beside Route S115 south of Catania is an abandoned commercial area with five big buildings. They were built in the 1990s, and given up after a short period of usage. The reason was that the new Catania-Syracusa highway was built only a short distance away, and the formerly busy road along the coast was almost forgotten. Patinaed signs on the wall still show that there once was a supermarket, a car-dealership, a furnisher….. Now a semi-organic layer covers the almost-new concrete floors, and birds fly about the huge halls, while wild plants crack the surfaces. SCRATCHING A CASTLE Castello del Duca di Misterbianco is an old castle-like villa, built in 1930, not far from a river and the beach. It has many rooms, and horse stables. It was abandoned in the Second World War after it was heavily bombed and partly destroyed by english soldiers, attacking the Germans who had occupied the castle. It is covered with plants. The surface is rocky. Two of the scratched circles were done on two different flat roofs on a windy day, the other ones inside of the structure, where it was even difficult to move the tentacle because of all the stone shards and plants scattered around. SCRATCHING A FURNITURE STORE Sicilmobile is a big furniture store built in the late ’70s in Brutalist concrete style. It was abandoned around the year 2000 for economic reasons. The building with its two levels is amazing and spacious. A restaurant was connected to the commercial area. The area has been used by skateboarders for some time. The surface is tiles, concrete, small stones and pieces of glass. In the main halls, broken bricks, fallen from the ceiling, cover the floor. One of the scratched circles was done outside of the building and the rest in different parts inside. There are two roads with a constant flow of traffic close to the building. The airport is also close. SCRATCHING A BRICK FACTORY Noted art critic Vittorio Sgarbi described Fornace Penna as “a secular basilica by the sea.” Indeed, this abandoned industrial structure echoes some of the crumbling medieval cathedrals scattered around Europe. Built entirely from solid stones in the early 1900s, Fornace Penna specialized in manufacturing bricks sold them across the Mediterranean region. However, business lasted only a little over ten years. On the night of January 24th, 1924, arson turned the factory into the fascinating and deserted stone skeleton we see today. The wind blows through the arcs of the ruins, which are heavily covered with all kinds of plants. There is an almost round, accessible vaulted kiln under the center of the building. With so many plants and rocks all over the place, it was difficult to find any locations for the scratchings. The waves of the sea can be heard in the background. At one place, a lizard tried to attack the tentacle during scratching. SCRATCHING A PAPER MILL S.p.a Cartiere Larena is a paper mill that was closed more than 30 years ago. It appears that the first paper made in Europe was produced in Sicily toward the end of the tenth century, and there are still several specialized paper producers, but this mill didn‘t survive the economical crisis of the ’80s. It is a beautiful building, still containing two big huge stone bowls, with motor-driven millstones inside. The surface is variable, from stone to clay and gravel. A road is close to the building and in the background a football match can be heard. SCRATCHING A BORGO Borgo Rizzo is one of the borgos in Sicily that were built between 1939 and 1940 under the then fascist government, with the goal of transforming agricultiral production systems and colonizing fertile, unused areas by attracting farmers to new villages that provided all main services, such as schools, churches, post offices, etc. Some of the houses have been partially renovated with EU funding, but remain unfinished and unused, tending to turn into the new generation of ruins. The area is very quiet with only very few cars driving on the nearby road. A wild dog with two puppies lives on the terrace of one of the houses. All in all it has the atmosphere of a ghost town. SCRATCHING A FORWARDING COMPANY Transporti Avimec was a big Catanian freight-forwarding company which was seized and closed in 1989 on suspicion of having been owned by the mafia and used for illegal transactions. Several attempts by mafia members to buy the company back were not successful. It was possible to enter the closed property by a hole in the wall. In the private house on the property, everything seemed to have been left behind from one minute to the next. Children’s toys, furniture and beds appear recently abandoned. The halls and the courtyard are empty. The area’s surface is partly covered with rubbish or birds‘ faeces. In the distance, traffic and the neighbours‘ trucks can be heard. SCRATCHING A CHAPEL The final exhibition was presented as a site-specific audiovisual installation at the former Oratory of Santa Maria del Sabato in one of the oldest parts of Palermo. The chapel is in a state of abandonment, waiting to converted into a synagogue. In the past it was a mosque, then a synagogue, and an oratory. The first scratch was taken in the empty hall, with just one tentacle scratching a circle. The second one is, as it was during the installation, recorded at the center of the middle circle of three motor-driven circle-scratching tentacles, with raw sheep’s wool covering parts of the floor, being moved from time to time by the tentacles. The third recording is the sound of the three tentacle circles, recorded from beside them. https://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=18680