14 January 2019

RUNDFUNK AETERNA X
A Radio Opera by Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag
World premiere as an installation at the Akademie der Künste
and kick-off of the new event series for audio art "Anhörung!"

Friday, 1 February 2019, 7 pm, Hanseatenweg
Further events until June 2019

The Akademie der Künste presents the symphonic-spatial recomposition of the radio opera RUNDFUNK AETERNA X by Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag. The artist, composer and theorist combines fine art, new music, and media aesthetic in his artwork, which is usually of installative nature.

In his most recent work Sonntag uses this installation to follow the artistic and political visions of the first new (mass) medium of radio, starting with Berlin in the early 1930s – from Arnheim, Benjamin, Brecht to Stockhausen, Cage, Heidegger and Kittler. The work was commissioned by documenta 14 and broadcast worldwide in 2017, now the public is invited to take a stroll through a multi-dimensional listening room.

The title of the installation refers to the history of analogue radio, as it was the high-frequency engineer Hans Bredow who asserted the term 'Rundfunk' (radio broadcasting) in a speech in 1921. According to the artist, radio and sound in new and experimental music have the same roots. The broadcasters paved the way for the avant-gardes of the post-war period, radio apparatus and studio became part of their compositions. The title is also reminiscent of the 1966 piece Lux aeterna by György Ligeti for a sixteen-voice mixed choir. For the installation at the Akademie, the entire sound system, consisting of a grid of 16 acoustic radiators, two spherical horn systems, large diffraction-horn, transistor radio, antennas for ELFwaves and instrumental soloists, was newly developed to turn sound into a physical experience.

RUNDFUNK AETERNA X is a production of N-solab sponsored by Hauptstadtkulturfonds. It has its world premiere as an installation at the Akademie der Künste in collaboration with CTM and the transmediale 2019. The installation is based on a studio production commissioned by documenta 14, supported by Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

The artist is available for press tours and talks. Enquiries to: Sabine Kolb, kolb@adk.de or at Tel.: 030/20057-1513.

In the new event series for audio art „Anhörung!" of the Akademie der Künste some exemplary pieces are listened to and discussed anew, archives are researched, borderlands are explored and forms of the public sphere are put to the test. After the launch at the beginning of February, the series will continue up until 2 June 2019 featuring radio plays by Heiner Müller/Heiner Goebbels, Inge Müller, Kathrin Röggla and Hermann Bohlen, and the opening of the Hermann Naber archive.

Event details
RUNDFUNK AETERNA X – A Radio Opera by Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag
Installation 1 to 7 February 2019
Friday and Saturday 11am–10pm, Sunday to Thursday 11am–7pm, free admission
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin
Opening on Friday, 1 February 2019, 7 pm
Welcome address Johannes Odenthal, Concert with Lars Gühlcke (sonD-Bass), Michael Vorfeld (DIYstring instruments), Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag (Audion Feedback Radio System) Artist talk on Saturday, 2 February 2019, 6 pm
with Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag, Hubertus von Amelunxen, Wolfgang Hagen, Moderation: Detlev Schneider

Press tickets: reservation at: presse@adk.de, Tel. +49 (0)30 200 571 514