Robert Henke • CBM 8032
The Athens Epidaurus Festival at the Athens Conservatoire

Curated by Stavros Gasparatos

Both as an artist and as a scientist, German-born Robert Henke is hailed as one of the most important contemporary electronic music artists. Founder of the legendary Monolake music project and co-creator of the Ableton software, used in recording studios around the world, Henke will present a work titled CBM 8032 AV. Using computers dating from the early 1980s, CBM 8032 AV explores the beauty of simple graphics and sound. At the same time, it conveys a sense of ambivalence between a contemporary aesthetics and the usage of obsolete, 40-year-old technology. In CBM 8032, all the materials of the audio-visual experience have been constructed based on 1980s techniques and digital media. However, the artistic result is clearly a part of today’s cultural milieu.

When artists began exploring computers as a medium during the 1950s, technology was limited and the resulting minimalism in expression was a necessity. Half a century later, the once promising sight of the green cathode-ray tube display evokes nostalgia for what was a true novelty back then.

Workshop

23 June Goethe-Institut Athen 15.00

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The Subset Festival borrows a mathematical term (“subset” ⊆) for the name of an avant-garde new music festival held as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival at the brand-new stages of the Athens Conservatoire. This five-day event will incorporate a wide range of artistic works, in the hopes of bringing diverse versions of contemporary musical creation and presentation into contact with each other. Within these five days, the three Athens Conservatoire stages will host by turns musical ensembles, sound and visual installations as well as musical performances in a multifaceted and particularly extroverted musical platform.

Drawing on a series of works chosen by the Athens Epidaurus Festival open call, artists from around the world, established and up-and-coming alike, will present their works in Athens and converse with one another, involving every one of us in this dialogue. With that in mind, participating artists will share their modus operandi with the audience in the form of special workshops and discussions. At the same time, directors and curators of similar events from across the globe will have the opportunity to be familiarized with the diverse contemporary Greek music scene.

The Subset Festival includes two commissions to contemporary Greek ensembles, TETTTIX and Trigger Happy, both of which are creating new works/installations for the Festival at the new stage of the Athens Conversatoire. Furthermore, established contemporary music artists, Greek and international, are participating (Ergon Ensemble, Vinyl -terror & -horror, MMMΔ & ALEM) as are avant-garde electronic musicians from Europe, Greece (Saber Rider) and foreigners (Robert Henke, Kali Malone, Hekla, Sébastien Roux), some of whom are making their Greek debut. Special emphasis will be placed on the outreach of the programme through laboratories by Triger Happy, TETTTIX, Sébastien Roux AND Robert Henke in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Athen