"Subnormal Europe", multimedia music theatre

The composers, multimedia artists and performers Óscar Escudero and Belenish Moreno-Gil created a performance that explores audiovisual fragments and follows the traces of European community.

As a commissioned composition and libretto by the City of Munich and the Hertz Laboratory of the ZKM Karlsruhe, the two artists created the performance »Subnormal Europe« for the Munich Biennale 2020.

Moments in personal and social history are characterized by their fragmentary nature. In the linear movement of audiovisual progress of the past years, impressions of special moments in technical reproduction arise. These are often so exact that the original cannot be distinguished from the replica. How can this be experienced artistically? Where and how does Europe shape itself?

Together with the alto Noa Frenkel and the sound engineer Sebastian Schottke, Escudero and Moreno-Gil create live replicas of the such fragments during the performance. They enter into a process that is co-designed by the audience. Parallel to each performance a series of interviews is published on the Instagram account @belenish.escudero. The results of this artistic process, the reactions, criticism and effect on the performance by the online community are collected and kept by the EU.

Credits:
Noa Frenkel (Contralto), Sebastian Schottke (voice) ZKM | Hertz-Lab: Ludger Brümmer (project management), Götz Dipper (project coordination, live electronics), Sophie Hesse (organization) Moritz Büchner (video studio: technical direction video), Andy Koch (video studio: camera), Güzide Coker (video studio: Flap & script), Xenia Leidig (video studio: video editing, set photos & videos), Hans Gass (set stage & lighting), Sebastian Schottke (live electronics, sound direction), Jakob Schreiber (sound recording), Bernd Lintermann (iPad software), Manfred Hauffen (technical support)