Gastvortrag Monika Żyła: CONTEMPORARY ART MUSIC IN EASTERN EUROPE AFTER THE FALL OF THE IRON CURTAIN
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Donnerstag, 9. Mai 2019, 19:15
Atelier im KunstQuartier, Bergstraße 12a (1. Stock), 5020 Salzburg
Political instrumentalization of the arts, including avant-garde music, took place on both sides of the Iron Curtain. During the post-ward period, in the West, the very narrative of modernist avant-garde composition supported American hegemony, spreading the ideals of artistic autonomy, freedom, and transparency, under the guise of supposedly apolitical agenda. Meanwhile, in the East, the state backed and promoted a reversed aesthetic doctrine, that of socialist realism. After the disclosure of the secret involvement of the CIA with the activities of the Congress for Cultural Freedom in 1967, it become clear that both camps aimed at delegitimizing and discrediting the other side using similar tools and strategies. Both the East and the West used arts and culture as their propaganda tools to advocate their version of liberal and socialist democracy, respectively. What happened then, when the false binary logic of Cold War that so strongly polarized the West and the East eventually ceased to exist? What did the Fall of the Iron Curtain mean for avant-garde composition in Eastern Europe? And actually, what characterized post-Cold War, post-1989 contemporary music after this transformation? Drawing on recent scholarship, this lecture gives insight into the changes in compositional thinking following the symbolic year 1989 that was believed to mark the end of the era of totalitarianisms in Europe.
Monika Żyła (Offenbach/D)
is a musicologist, cultural theorist, author, and music curator. She
is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Salzburg in the Department of Music and Dance Studies. She teaches at the University of Vienna and the University of Salzburg. Her research interests include Polish music, contemporary, experimental and live music cultures, and gender relations in contemporary music.
In particular, her recent work has been on art music festivals in Europe since 1956, the impact of these institutions on composition, audiences, and relationships between music, gender, politics and urbanism. As an author, she regularly publishes articles, music reviews, and interviews in Glissando, Ruch Muzyczny, Dwutygodnik, Odra and Circuit – Musiques Contemporaines.
Her recent essay “Emigrantki” on polish female émigré composers was included in a book published by Krytyka Polityczna. Her first peer-reviewed article “Cornelius Carew behind the Iron Curtain” was published in the latest issues of the Canadian journal Circuit – Musiques Contemporaines. She is an author and producer of the series of podcasts about contemporary music called Radio w Kuchni. In 2018, she artistically directed and produced a series of 24-hour staged performances entitled VEXATIONS: REVISITED based on Eric Satie’s piece Vexations from 1893.
Information: Ingeborg Schrems | Tel. +43 662 8044 2380