Resident Fellows

Emmanuel Witzthum | Spring 2012

Israeli musician Emmanuel Witzthum is a composer, violist, installation artist, and director of The Lab (Hama'abada) in Jerusalem, a venue for experimental theater, dance, and music. He has also served as musical advisor to the Israel Festival, the premier festival for the arts in Israel. In Dissolving Localities, a recent work, Witzthum invited audio/visual artists to come to Jerusalem and "perform" the city as a “musical/visual” instrument. Mr. Witzthum will be hosted by the Department of Music while at Berkeley in early spring 2012. In addition to delivering a public lecture, he will be involved in activities with the Magnes Museum and the Department of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies. Mr. Witzthum’s residency is made possible in collaboration with the Schusterman Family Foundation's Visiting Artist program.

Public Events

“Dissolving Localities | Berkeley Jerusalem: A Multimedia Exhibit”
January 22 – July 3, 2012
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley

Dissolving Localities | Berkeley Jerusalem will extend Witzthum's recent project, where artists were invited to "perform" the city of Jerusalem as a musical/visual instrument. By interweaving recorded sights and sounds, they created an expanding open-source multimedia montage. During his residency in Berkeley, Witzthum will build an audiovisual dialogue between Jerusalem, his hometown, and Berkeley, in an installation at the Main Gallery of The Magnes. The final result will be presented in a public program at the closing of his residency on March 15.

More on the exhibit

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Dissolving Localities | Urban Space and the Prosumer: The Future of Artistic Creation?
Monday, February 13, 2012
4:00 p.m. | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall

In this public lecture, Witzthum will examine the ways in which Joseph Beuyse’s comment that “everyone is an artist” has truly become a reality in the era of the prosumer and technology. Prosumers are no longer dependent on an “artist” to create a work of art, or an “industry” to package and market that work of art for them to consume. The prosumer creates his/her own art or is involved in its creation in an active way. Technology emancipates both the consumer and producer by the development of readily available tools for creation and dissemination of art. Witzthum will also discuss his Dissolving Localities project, in which not only everyone is an artist, but everyone and everywhere are in fact a work of art.The project connects directly between urban space, the prosumer and the arts by joining them together in order to create a work of art through technology - attempting to redefine how they intersect.

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Composition Colloquium: “Hybrid Spectrums Identity”
Friday, February 17, 2012
3:00 - 4:30 p.m. | Elkus Room, 125 Morrison Hall

Witzthum presents acoustic, digital and inter-medial works, connecting them with his artistic agenda as an Israeli artist and the myriad connotations this identity holds within it. He references Israeli reality and how it has shaped his artistic decisions.

More information

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Concert at CNMAT: Acoustic Compositions and Electronic/Video Selection
Saturday, February 25, 2012
8:00 p.m. | Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)
1750 Arch St., Berkeley

Tickets not required. Reception to follow.

Event Contact: 510-642-2678