Conrad Schnitzler „Manchmal artet es in Musik aus“

11.06.2022 – 14.08.2022

Conrad Schnitzler: Sometimes it gets out of hand and turns into music

The aim of the project Conrad Schnitzler: Sometimes it gets out of hand and turns into music, which includes an exhibition and a festival program, is to reassess the extensive work of Conrad Schnitzler (b. 1937 in Düsseldorf, d. 2011 in Berlin). The show is a cooperation between the imai—Inter Media Art Institute and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.

In the exhibition, the audiovisual works of the sculptor, musician, composer, as well as video, performance, and conceptual artist are brought together and made tangible. The festival program invites Schnitzler’s contemporaries and successors to intervene in spaces at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and to contextualize and reflect on his work through discussions, installations, performances, screenings, and concerts.

To this day, Schnitzler is revered around the world as a pioneer of electronic music, even though he did not seek to make music himself and strictly rejected the commercial sale of his works. A lively international network developed around him, which propagated and realized the free circulation, reproduction, and performance of his audio and visual works. Schnitzler’s artistic legacy will now be institutionally recognized for the first time together with the artistic community around him.

Participating artists: Conrad Schnitzler, Noemi Büchi, Cengiz Mengüç, Ken Montgomery, Ulrike Rosenbach, Wolfgang Seidel, Nika Son, Tolouse Low Trax, Keiko Yamamoto, and many others

The exhibition is curated by Stefan Schneider (artist, musician) and Linnea Semmerling (Inter Media Art Institute) with Gregor Jansen and Alicia Holthausen (both Kunsthalle Düsseldorf).

The project is funded by Musikfonds e.V. by means of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM), as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR recovery programme and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.