Skip to main content
33rd Koblenz Guitar Festival & Academy | Sunday 1st - Monday 9th June 2025

SOUND ART KOBLENZ GUITAR FESTIVAL & ACADEMY 2023

SUNDAY 21st MAY - MONDAY 29th MAY 2023
"eyes & ears" Sound Installations for Koblenz Guitar Festival & Academy 2023
Vernissage 21st May 5 pm at the Rhein-Mosel Halle

Juan David Bermúdez

The Twilight Suitcase - Koblenz Version 2023

The Twilight Suitcase Project helps us rediscover our curiosity and enthusiasm for the slow changes in our environment. In essence, it allows us to capture the ephemeral qualities of change, locality, duration, and time by reimagining audiovisual data collected from sunsets around the world. The technique developed for this piece allows us to experience the slowly changing color range of the light of a place through our senses, something that is usually inaccessible to us. Each new recording shows the tension between the local time represented by the sunset and the duration of the recording written on paper in a 24-hour system of standardized time convection. 

Sound is also a critical component of the work. By showing side by side the luminous landscape with the soundscape of the place, the project reveals different ways of experiencing reality and temporal scales. As Emily Thompson writes in her book The Soundscape of Modernity, “A soundscape is simultaneously a physical environment and a way of perceiving that environment; it is both a world and a culture constructed to make sense of the world. A soundscape, like a landscape, ultimately has more to do with civilization than with nature." 

Especially for this exhibition, Bermudez captured the sunset in Koblenz on 9 May 2023 and combined it with a sunset in Iceland, where he spent an artist residency earlier this year.

Special thanks to the European Union, the Goethe Institute through the Culture Moves Europe grant, and Die Freundeskreis der Musikhochschule Mainz for supporting the creation of this work. Disclaimer: This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.

DANBI JEUNG

I eat rice my dear (2023)

8 Channel Sound Installation

"I don't drink coffee, I drink tea my dear", this lyric appears in the song "Englishman in New York" by Sting. The lyrics refer to the cultural differences between England and America, as tea is considered an English cultural asset and is traditionally more important than coffee.

By drinking tea in the USA, according to the song, one becomes a stranger and the difference in culture and thinking is made clear by the one drink.

The title of the sound installation "I eat rice my dear" is a parody of this song. It expresses cultural differences and individual preferences through basic foods that one eats in European or East Asian countries. These are set into vibration by low-frequency frequencies and thus produce sounds themselves. Is it possible to distinguish these sounds of the staple foods of the different cultures only by ear?

The moments also of my life as a foreigner in a European country and the attempt to adapt to the life and culture of the place were reinterpreted through sound and food: "I eat rice my dear".

WINGEL MENDOZA

Senza tempo (2023)

12 Channel Sound Installation

Senza tempo is a sound sculpture that represents the temporal line of the spectator. The sculpture is a representation of a clock using 12 wooden bars arranged in a circle, each bar represents the hours of the clock. Also, each bar has a speaker, in which specific temporal moments will be played, thus representing its timeline.

As a sound sculpture, the artwork is captured and frozen in time, and at the same time, through sound, it exists in the continuum of time. This temporal duality is the dialogue that the artwork deals with, between perpetuity and the present. The viewer can confront the space in the form of a circle, where the audio is distributed in the 12 speakers, like small temporal gaps, and the audience can experience them through sound localization. Sight and hearing complement each other to become a holistic spatial-temporal experience that is enhanced, complemented, and completed with the other senses, and is realized through the movement of the body in space. The sculpture represents the unique sonorous temporal becoming in life.

LEON SENGER

angereichert (enriched)

8 Channel Sound Installation, 2023

From Koblenz, travel about 23 km to the northwest and again a similar distance into the earth's interior and you could go swimming in the magma chamber under Lake Laach, which is slowly filling up again. Unfortunately, the human body is not too well suited for a bath in liquid magma. It's more pleasant on the surface, where the traces of volcanism are limited to healthy mineral water, almost circular lakes and gases rising to become tourist attractions.

In this work, conceived especially for the Koblenz Guitar Festival, Leon Senger was inspired by the nearby volcanic Eifel and the contrast between the idyllic landscape and the almost unimaginable power that lies dormant underground. Just as gases and water make their way through layers of rock and allow us to participate in phenomena whose dimensions far exceed a human lifetime, the sounds move hissing and bubbling through the floors of the staircase of the Rhein-Mosel Halle.

The artist recorded these gases in the Laacher Maar in May 2023 especially for the project using the highest quality microphone technology.

KYUNGSEO MIN

연 連 (Yeon, Verbindung)
Patchwork with Masks / speakers

There are several homonyms in Korean. One of them is “연(Yeon)”. Korea uses Chinese characters as well to enhance the meaning of words. In this case Chinese character yeon has the meaning of connection.

Korean people fly kites with their families to send off bad memories and bad luck and wish for new blessing at the same time.

In the past few years, many people have suffered from the unexpected disease Corona and free communication has been limited and cut off.

Masks protected us from the disease but also gave us disconnection of communication.

But nowadays we are gradually reaching the end of Covid and the Covid-19 measures.

I tried to show not only the mask but also express the liberation from the disease through the act of making and flying an object called a kite with the same motif.

At one time, it was difficult to get masks, but now we don’t need them. So I thought a lot while looking at the piled up masks, which are now waste.

For the object called Mask, I collaborated with my family and had the idea that we would connect with each other through this work. The sounds used come from the making of the object and from conversations with my family and friends, who I asked about their dream. All this sounds in a connecting sound network from four speakers.

I felt that the two words called “연(Yeon)” with the same pronunciation are different, but have the same direction.

We have been looking for ways to connect during this difficult time and we are looking for ways to recover and reconnect with people again.

All is connected in the desire to overcome and liberate such situations.

JUAN DAVID BERMÚDEZ

(*1994 IN BOGOTÁ, COLUMBIA)

is a Colombian sound artist and musician (born 1994 in Bogota) fascinated by the relationship between sound and time. Throughout his work he seeks to challenge traditional perceptions of time and instead engage in a poetic conversation about how we communicate, describe and question the passage of time. He explores time as a social construct and a concept beyond human comprehension. As a musician he performs and composes music in non-conventional settings, hoping to create experiences in which the music becomes part of everyday situations.

Juan has a Music bachelor's degree with an emphasis on Sound engineering from Javeriana University. He currently studies sound art composition at the HfM Mainz and has exhibited at the SoundSeeing festival in Münsterland, Espacio Odeón in Bogota, SÍM exhibition hall in Reykjavik and at Klangkunstfestival Opening in Trier, among others. He was awarded the Deutschland Stipendium in 2021 and received the Cultural Promotion Award Rotary Club Mainz-Churmeyntz in 2022. He has just returned from an artist residency by the visual artist association of Iceland (SÍM) in March/April 2023.

He already presented his work at the Koblenz Guitar Festival and Academy in 2021 and 2022.

http://www.juanbermudez.net

PETER KIEFER

is sound artist, composer and sound researcher.

His compositions and sound art works always focus on space as a central theme and have been performed and exhibited internationally.

He taught at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and since 2001 he is professor at the School of Music at Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz. In 2010 he initiated the Master Studies program „Sound Art-Composition“ and is head of the Department „Sound ArtComposition“.

In 2018 he was awarded as research fellow for sound reserach at Gutenberg Research College for the project A.R.S. Art - Research Sound.

Photo: Nicola Hein

https://ars.uni-mainz.de/research-associates/
https://www.musik.uni-mainz.de/lehrende/peter-kiefer/

DANBI JEUNG (Alumna)

(*1991, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA)

studied instrumental and electronic composition in Seoul, Hanover and Karlsruhe, including as a master student with Prof. Wolfgang Rihm. Since 2019 she studied sound art with Prof. Peter Kiefer, Prof. Stefan Fricke and Prof. Frauke Eckhardt at the Hochschule für Musik in Mainz. In her work she works with the connection of sound, theater and text and includes natural, social and psychological phenomena. In 2021 she exhibited at the festival SoundSeeing in Münsterland and at Klangkunstfestival Opening in Trier. Her string quartet 51:49' was premiered in Seoul by INO (International Intercourse of New music organization) with the support of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture. The premiere of her work Trauerfeier für Künstler conducted by Ulrich Wagner at the Badisches Staatstheater was in March 2022.

She received the Germany Scholarship and is supported by the German Music Council - Neustart Kultur Scholarship in 2022 and 2023.

In March 2023 she graduated with a master's degree in sound art composition with the work "let there be fancy light".

She already presented her work at the Koblenz Guitar Festival and Academy in 2021 and 2022.

http://danbijeung.com/

KYUNGSEO MIN

Kyungseo Min studied applied music (jazz and pop music composition) at Nazarene University in Korea. As a jazz duo and trio, she performed at music festivals and served as an accompanist (keyboardist) for Korean singers. In 2019 and 2021 she released her own single albums, which she produced herself.

Since 2021 she has been studying sound art and electronic music, mainly trying to focus on how to express various social issues with sound.
Since October 2022, she has been studying in the Master's program in Sound Art Composition at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz.

https://on.soundcloud.com/rTdvsJ9d24JSn4un8

WINGEL MENDOZA (Alumnus)

Wingel Mendoza (Mexico City, 1982) is a composer and sound artist based in Germany. He studied composition at Trinity College London and the Rotterdam Conservatory and completed the master class in composition at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg with Robert H.P. Platz and was a "Meisterschüler" in the Sound Art Composition program in Mainz until April 2023.

His works expand the contexts of sounds through his own analog, digital instruments or external electronic sources and in interaction with other arts.

His music has been performed in Mexico, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Netherlands, Lithuania, Rusia, Spain, Norway, among other countries. He has been a recipient of the "Jóvenes Creadores" (Young Creators) program by FONCA (Mexico) in the 2014-15 and 2017-18 editions. He is currently a member of the National System of Art Creators (2020-2023) in Mexico.

He has also won various awards and competitions, including first place in the composition competition "Armin Knab Wettbewerb für Komposition 2016" (Würzburg, Germany) with the piece "Cuitláhuac" for orchestra. With the work "Der Hase des Mondes" (The Moon's Rabbit) for piano he won the first place in the composition competition "Von fremden Ländern und Menschen 2017" (Leipzig, Germany). He received different artistic residencies in composition and sound art, among others the artistic residency for the Center for Electronic Art (BEK) in Norway (2022), Künstlerstadt Kalbe (Milde), Germany (2019). In 2021 he held a scholarship in the artist village Schöppingen for half a year and received the cultural promotion award of the Rotary Club Mainz-Churmeyntz.

As a sound artist his work has been presented in different exhibition spaces such as Walpodenakademie Mainz, Soundseeing festival, Nottbeck and Coesfeld, Kunsthochschule Mainz, etc. He was a resident composer for various theater works, e,g, at the City Theater of Wiesbaden "Behalt das leve Lieb" and "Figaro lässt sich scheiden". As an improviser, he has performed in different venues such as Festival de Reynosa in Mexico, Festival Ensemble in Germany, ReMusik.org festival in Russia, among others.

As a sound artist his work has been presented in different exhibition spaces: in 2021 he exhibited at the festival SoundSeeing in Münsterland and at Klangkunstfestival Opening in Trier. In 2022 he was invited for several lectures and workshops by Parque Cultural Reynosa, Mexico. He also received support by the German Music Council - Neustart Kultur Scholarship.

In March 2023 he obtained his "Meisterschülerabschluss" (Third Bologna Cycle) in sound art composition.

He already presented his work at the Koblenz Guitar Festival and Academy in 2021 and 2022.

https://wingel82.wixsite.com/wingelmendoza

LEON SENGER

(*1995 IN WIESBADEN, GERMANY)

is a drummer, improviser and sound artist. In 2020, he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Jazz & Pop from the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem (NL). It was there that he discovered his love for improvised music and the exploration of sound, among other things in lessons with Etienne Nillesen. He subsequently decided to expand his artistic practice beyond the purely musical and has been studying sound art composition with Peter Kiefer at the HfM Mainz since October 2021. In his sound art work he consciously adopts the starting position that he does not function as a creative spirit and sole starting point in the creative process, but is in a constant improvisational exchange with his environment or his material - whether in resonance or dissonance. This links his various projects, which can range from "automatic drawings" and their sonic aspects to an exploration of geological phenomena.

He gained a scholarship for the 8th international Winter Campus of the „Künstlerstadt Kalbe.

His work ‘subject unknown - iteration II’, which encompasses the entire staircase, could be experienced at the Koblenz Guitar Festival and Academy 2022.

https://soundart.uni-mainz.de/category/students/

SOUND ART-COMPOSITION CLASS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MUSIC MAINZ

The Mainz School of Music is the first school of music in Germany to offer a Master’s degree in Sound Art-Composition. Since 2010 this study program invites musicians and artists who are seeking to enhance their artistic competencies in the area of sound art and composition. Since 2019 it has also been possible to study as a „Meisterschüler“ in the third stage.

The program is based on the latest developments in the intermediary concepts of music and art. Trends in sound art, audio-visual art, electronic composition, new music, and radio arts, the Ars Acustica, are combined into a thematic unity. Compositional approaches with a focus on spatialization and intermedia composition strategies are examined and refined at the highest artistic levels.

One focus is on sounding space - especially public space. The students develop spatial sound or sound installations as well as performative concepts, audio plays, concerts and media representations.

Very recently, the class Sound Art Composition presented works in the context of the festival SOUNDSEEING 2021 at the Kulturgut Haus Nottbeck and the Kunstverein Münsterland in Coesfeld. As well as at the festival OPENING in Trier where 15 works were shown in several locations in Trier, including the Karl-Marx-Haus, Museum am Dom and the Simeonstift next to Porta Nigra.

Students of the Master’s program were awarded numerous prizes: Operare Berlin 2010, Sound of E-Motion RWTH Aachen 2011, Kalkhof-Rose Scholarship, Rotary Cultural Promotion Prize, Artists' Scholarships New York of the Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia, numerous residencies including Künstlerdorf Schöppingen, tokio wonder site and Sapporo in Japan and they have participated in exhibitions at the Kommunikationsmuseum Frankfurt and at the Art Basel. The sound-light-space resonate was shown at the festival >Luminale< in Frankfurt and afterwards in the cube of the ZKM Karlsruhe at the exhibition Sound Art.

Univ.-Prof. Peter Kiefer is the head of the department, currently Prof. Stefan Fricke and Prof. Dr. Salomé Voegelin also teach here.

Visiting professors have been: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Prof. Alvin Curran, Prof. Dr. Florian Dombois, Prof. Anke Eckardt, Prof. Frauke Eckhardt, Prof. Bernhard Leitner, Jacob Kirkegaard, Prof. Miya Masaoka, Andres Bosshard and Kaspar König.

Kontakt: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://soundart.uni-mainz.de | www.musik.uni-mainz.de