Since the beginning of the 21st century, construction and production processes have annually shifted more rock material than rivers, erosion and other non-human processes put together. A part of humanity is thus becoming a geological factor whose effects are deeply inscribed in the materiality of the earth. For MODIFIED GROUNDS, this strongly transforming and newly stratified surface of the earth is read in several translation steps as musical score and performed as a sound installation. In a joint, interdisciplinary work process between the visual artist Katrin Hornek and the composer Judith Unterpertinger, data of different material flows are researched, deconstructed and interpreted in cooperation with partners and scientists from different fields.
The project MODIFIED GROUNDS wants to trace the abstract space of capital-driven material displacement as a resonating body by performing a developed score live at strategically and content-wise selected locations. MODIFIED GROUNDS #1, Formwork was realized in 2018 at the Doka-factory in Amstetten, one of the largest concrete formwork companies in the world. MODIFIED GROUNDS #2, Concrete Voids takes place inside the Brigittenauer Bridge, which spans the Danube and rests with one bridge leg on Vienna"s largest structure - the Danube Island. MODIFIED GROUNDS #3 will be realized at a place of material mining, probably in a cement quarry.
Katrin Hornek: Idea, concept, video
Judith Unterpertinger: concept, composition
Paetzold flutes: Caroline Mayrhofer, Gobi Drab
Bass Clarinet: Theresia Schmidinger
Drums and tape editing: Bernhard Breuer
Field Recordings + Tape: Juun
Sound direction: Alfred Reiter
Technical support: Karl Salzmann
Video documentation : Caroline Bobek
Photos: Paul Gasser
Support and providing of materials for the composition and the video:
Archaeology: Matt Edgeworth; Doka: Helmut Weissengruber, Johann Prinz; Geology: Michael Wagreich (Austrian representative of the Anthropocene working group), Patrick Meister (geodynamics and sedimentology), Martin Zuschin (paleontology), Maria Heinrich (history of raw materials); Material chemistry: Isabella Jandl (BauMit). All cement-producing quarries in Austria: Dürnbach (Wopfinger Baustoffindustrie GmbH), Obermicheldorf (Kirchdorfer Zementwerk Hofmann Gesellschaft m.b.H.), Vils und Höfen (Schretter & Cie GmbH & Co KG), Gutrathberg (Zementwerk Leube GmbH), Retznei, Weissenegg and Mannersdorf (Lafarge Zementwerke GmbH), Ebensee/Pfeiferkogel (Zementwerk Hatschek GmbH), Pölven + Schmiedl (SPZ Zementwerk Rohstoff Verwertungs GmbH. & Co KG), Tanneben, Peggau (w&p Zement GmbH).
Within the 25 year anniversary of the Kulturhof Amstetten
finanzed by: bka, Kultur Niederösterreich (comission for composition)
supported by: Artist in Residency Niederösterreich, Gyeonggi Creation Center, Kunath