John Giorno / Ugo Rondinone

Voice performance at Kunstraum

Voice: John Giorno, room: Ugo Rondinone

On the occasion of the exhibition Sounds. Radio – Art – New Music (February 13 – March 28, 2010) the Neue Berliner Kunstverein and Zipp – German-Czech Cultural Projects presented on March 28, 2010 a voice-performance of John Giorno, one of the key figures of New York`s Beat Generation.

The founder of performance poetry put eight of his poems on stage. The stage design was made by the swiss artist Ugo Rondinone. The Poems are from different phases of Giornos artistic career, which have brought him together with artists like Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Robert Rauschenberg, or Jasper Johns. The text Lorca, please help me! was premiered.

Ugo Rondinone is first known for his hyper-artificial installations. He transforms exhibition spaces into stage designs, where visitors have became mutes. Rondinone transfered Giorno`s studio as a supersized photo-wallpaper from New York to Berlin.

The series #Diskurs monthly presents n.b.k. events that were held in the frame of exhibitions at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. Lectures, symposia, and artist talks, as well as concerts and performances regularly take place within the series „n.b.k. Diskurs“, inviting visitors to participate actively. Artists whose works are exhibited, guests of our residency program, and speakers develop outreach formats in cooperation with n.b.k., that can make different artistic and curatorial approaches and thematic issues productive. The n.b.k. conceives its discourse program as a conversation between the institution, the public, and members, from which ideas for the ongoing institutional work and its content grows. The complete „n.b.k. Diskurs“ archive can be viewed free of charge during the opening hours at the Video-Forum.