On the Omni-Presence of Music 

Heiner Goebbels

Abstract

In his compositions and music theatre works, German artist Heiner Goebbels works on a polyphone intermediality between the theatrical elements text, music, stage, light and choreography; a special attention lays on what he has described on various occasions as "aesthetics of absence" (2012/2015). In the keynote he will now focus on musical correlations between the different media instead of an emphasis on the "separation of elements" (Brecht). Musicality can be seen as a general agent to be found in all art forms and becomes a major strategy to connect and relate them. Video and sound examples of recent productions such as A House Of Call (2021) and Everything That Happened and Would Happen (2018) will exemplify his keynote.

bio

The composer and director Heiner Goebbels (*1952) belongs to the most important exponents of the contemporary music and theatre scene. His compositions for ensembles and big orchestras are currently performed worldwide as well as several of his music theatre works and staged concerts. He created a great variety of sound and video installations, which have been displayed by Artangel London, MAC Lyon, Museum Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, Albertinum Dresden, New Space Moscow, Museo da Arte Bogota a.o..

Heiner Goebbels worked for nearly 20 years as a professor at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen (1999-2018), from 2012 to 2014 he was artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts RUHRTRIENNALE.
2018 he received the first appointment for the newly established Georg Büchner Professorship, from the President of the Justus Liebig University and is established at the interdisciplinary research centre ZMI - Centre for Media and Interactivity in Gießen.

Upcoming performances can be seen in the Calender.