9th SPOR FESTIVAL, Aarhus, Denmark, 8–11 May (Guest curator: Jennifer Walshe)
SPOR FESTIVAL 2014, Aarhus, Denmark
When SPOR festival takes place for the 9th consecutive year from May 8th-11th in Aarhus it is with an exhibition tour, seminars, a full concert programme and much more. The opening day kicks off with two sound art exhibitions and an outdoor performance in the old industrial area, Spanien. From there on SPOR 2014 moves its way through the city to the contemporary art center Kunsthal Aarhus before rounding off the evening with two world class concerts, which offer drama, horror and audience performance.
International attention
For everyone involved, the four festival days are the culmination of many months of preparation, where everyone have been working hard to create a festival that lives up to its reputation as one of the leading European contemporary music festivals. For several years SPOR has attracted international attention, and also this year a number of leading media for experimental music and art are visiting Aarhus during SPOR festival 2014.
Scandinavia meets New York
Apart from a strong attendance from New York’s music and art scene, the Nordic region is well represented at SPOR 2014. Three Nordic ensembles are attending the festival and will deliver exceptionally instrumental combinations that have made them famous far beyond the borders of Scandinavia. One of them is Norwegian Cikada, known as one of Scandinavia’s best representatives of contemporary music. Sunday morning the audience will wake up to new experiments for string quartet in the beautiful settings of the festival main venue Granhøj Dans. After the concert, the composers and musicians will meet for a talk moderated by the Danish composer and author Karl Aage Rasmussen.
Drones and an intimate opera experiment
SPOR festival 2014 offers a comprehensive programme containing artists who have international star status within contemporary music and sound art. The American avant-garde sound artist, composer and musician Tony Conrad is presented Saturday May 10th with a performance in collaboration with guest curator Jennifer Walshe. As Ma la Pert the two artists are known for performances involving voices, string instruments, broken plastic, parts of words, stories, chanting, shouting, smashed drum heads, bells, green furry outfits, breastplates, and old lady dresses. Sunday afternoon the audience also get the opportunity to become acquainted with filmmaker Tony Conrad, when he presents some of his video works in the movie theatre Øst for Paradis. As a violinist, Conrad was among the founders of drone music and one of the first members of The Dream Syndicate, which also included John Cale and La Monte Young.
The successful Danish composer Niels Rønsholdt will give the audience a unique experience with his new solo work Ord for Ord [Word by Word]. This exclusive performance, which has its World Premiere May 10th, will only seat 12 audience members at a time and is with Rønsholdt’s own words, “an experiment with the opera genre. I will systematically turn all conventional notions of the opera upside down: the spectacular becomes intimate, the many contributing become one, set design becomes dark. And above all, it’s true. From the often quixotic and exaggerated opera dramas to a small piece of reality, as we all experience it.”
International exhibition programme
Likewise the audience can look forward to several sound art exhibitions at some of the most interesting places for contemporary art in Aarhus such as Kunsthal Aarhus, Spanien 19C and rum46. Here Danish and international sound artists create space for drama, sanctuaries of the past and the fragile reality of the present.
More info
From May 8-11th SPOR festival takes place under the title DO IT ANYWAY. This year’s guest curator is the acclaimed composer and performer Jennifer Walshe (IR/UK). The programme offers 34 events including concert events, performances, exhibitions, seminars, and artist talks as well as Aarhus’ first ever Music Hackathon.
Read more about the programme, works and venues at www.sporfestival.dk, www.facebook.com/sporfestival, www.twitter.com/SPORfestival or www.instagram.com/sporfestival.
Buy your tickets here: www.billetto.dk
About SPOR festival
SPOR is an annual festival in Aarhus, Denmark, for contemporary music and sound art that has existed since 2005. SPOR festival works ambitiously to promote and communicate music and sound art at the highest artistic level, nationally and internationally. SPOR creates a platform for stronger connections to the international sound art and music scenes and wants to challenge and meet the audience, to beautify, modify, or demonstrate new ways.
The press says
“This small festival is starting to show the breadth and high quality of a larger event such as the UK’s Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music.” (The Wire, nr. 354, August 2013)
“SPOR […], as one of the only festivals of its kind, is of great importance for Danish contemporary art and for the exchange between artists and culture scenes internationally.” (Musikeren)