ATEMWENDE [BREATHTURN] Performance

Arter hosting EarPort – a collaborative duo consisting of Gerhard Stäbler and Kunsu Shim – for a special performance titled AtemWende [BreathTurn].

Drawing inspiration from Dada, Futurism and Fluxus, the duo has developed a distinctive concept of performance music that centres on the interplay between visual elements and music in order to effectively blur the boundaries that separate the acts of seeing and listening in what they refer to as “PerformanceConcerts”. AtemWende [Breathturn], which will take place in Arter’s 2nd-floor gallery with inspiration from Sarkis’ solo exhibition ENDLESS, aims to create a self-contained breathing space within an ever-changing environment where new values emerge persistently.

By interpreting the memories of different times and places brought to the exhibition space through Sarkis’ installation Respiro as an allusion to the expanded spaces associated with breathing, AtemWende aims to direct the attention of the audience to the subtle and seemingly insignificant aspects of the world. Borrowing its title from a 1967 poetry collection in which Paul Celan introduced the term “Attem Wende” to signify moments when words transcend their literal meanings, the performance offers diverse methods for transforming the reality of a commodified and totalitarian world through music.

Sarkis’ work Transflammation, which alludes to the perpetual cycle of birth and destruction, and Domenika Kaesdorf’s Seven Dresses of the Rainbow, created specifically for Sarkis, also serve as important sources of inspiration for Stäbler and Shim.