ARTIST TALK: Mike Hentz: Live Art As A Research on Culture And Living

Wednesday, 25 May 2016, 6 pm
A.V.A. Institute, Academy of Visual Arts, Trubarjeva 5, Ljubljana

In this lecture Mike Hentz presents some of the artistic and cultural projects he has realized over the last 40 years, in collaboration and as a solo artist (Minus Delta T, Black Work, etc.). From situation and live art, performance, street art, actionism, body art, and theater-like projects to interactive media projects, the most diverse approaches and their specifics will be presented and discussed. A special focus will be put on live art as a research on culture and living, as well as on the durational aspect of projects that last over months and even years.

Over 40 years Mike Hentz has practiced and developed special techniques of group and research work in art and culture. In the second part of his lecture he will show some examples of his “klima workshops”, which last between 24 hours and 2 weeks. They function as well-prepared mise-en-scènes of artistic research and performance, living and working in a well-timed and prepared dramaturgy in a closed group, with the intention of offering the group a collective pool of practice, theory, and knowledge in the fields and themes in which they work, and a platform to research, experiment, and test without the stress of perfection and a critical public eye.

The lecture is also an introduction of Hentz's 36 hours long “klavzura” on the topic of Clime, Decadence, Human, and Machine, to be held at Cirkulacija 2, Tobačna, on 28–29 May 2016.
More: http://www.cirkulacija2.org/

Mike Hentz (1954), Swiss / American, living in Berlin. Hentz is a visual and poly-media artist, performer, musician, and was co-author of several pioneering projects in media art in the 1980s and 1990s. He was a professor at the art academies in Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg, 1989–1997) and in Stuttgart (Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, 2003–2007) and since 2009 he has been teaching at film and media department at the RISEBA Riga. He is a co-founder of several cutting-edge artistic projects/platforms/groups as: Minus Delta T (documenta, Kassel, 1987), Hotel Pompino/Van Gogh TV (Ars Electronica, Linz, 1990), Van Gogh TV/Piazza Virtuale (documenta, Kassel, 1992) and Ponton Media Art Lab.

Co-organizers: Cirkulacija 2, Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory, and A.V.A. Institute
Co-financed by: City of Ljubljana – Department for Culture
This lecture is associated with the programme HOW ART MATTERS. AND HOW IT MEANS., co-organized by DUM – Association of Artists and Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory.