Many thanks to Duane Toops for interviewing me on his podcast The Process & The Path. It was a joy talking with him! Check out the podcast episode, “Art Meets Mysticism: An Interview With Joel Tauber” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor FM; and check out the video version of our conversation on YouTube as well.
Category: Updates
UNDERWATER opens at the Adamski Gallery in Berlin on June 22
I’m really excited that UNDERWATER opens on Saturday June 22 at the Adamski Gallery in Berlin. The 7-channel video installation – that’s also an operatic disco – brings environmentalism, trance music, and mysticism together.
Watch the preview video to hear me singing about global warming like a Jewish cantor on the Day of Atonement.
And read more about the project and the show (below).
Hope to see you soon!
JOEL TAUBER | UNDERWATER
ADAMSKI | BERLIN
JUNE 25 – AUGUST 17
OPENING: JUNE 22, 7-9 pm
(Gallery closed July 20-27)
UNDERWATER brings environmentalism,
trance music, and mysticism together; as it suggests, in interactive and
immersive ways, that we’re all connected to each other and to the land / sea –
even if we have largely forgotten that and even if we have to collectively
change our ways. As people dance in the UNDERWATER operatic disco, their movements – which echo
Tauber’s – blur the distinctions between our bodies. The boundaries between the
Self and the Other collapse; just as the distinctions between people / marine
life blur, and the distinctions between the human built environment of the
exhibition space and the underwater video world merge.
In the 7-channel video installation, 5 videos focus on what Tauber finds underwater: pollution, death, nausea, a beautiful sea turtle, and swaying kelp… A 6th video shows him disappearing into a cloud of air bubbles; and a 7th video shows a visual map of his 40 scuba dives, which slowly moves into existence from left to right in real time with the 51 minute musical piece.
The composition arises from depth readings recorded during every second of Tauber’s dives. Tauber assigned each dive an instrument and a beat and translated the movements of each dive in real time into music: the deeper the depth reading, the deeper the note. Sometimes, all 40 dives play together. Other times, a “band” of dives are heard. And, then there are moments when individual dives have “solos”. Tauber sings his dive depths (higher notes for the higher depths, deeper notes for the deeper depths) (“43 feet”… “80 feet”…) at various intervals to emphasize the relationships between his movements underwater and the music.
Tauber sings about seeking the Other (which is the chorus) in ways that evoke the Jewish cantorial scales; and he sings about pollution and global warming in ways that evoke the iconic old melody “Kol Nidre” from the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. So, there is a prayer-like / collective atonement element to this underwater rave.
8 drawings of the musical notes and lyrics in the composition accompany the videos.
Participation in the show can happen both directly, by experiencing the installation and dancing to its music; and also remotely, by responding to the call to send personal stories about global warming, marine life, seas rising, and hurricanes to mail@adamskigallery.com These stories will be included in the show.
ADAMSKI / BERLIN
@ FAHRBEREITSCHAFT
GEBÄUDE 13
HERZBERGSTRASSE 40–43
10365 BERLIN
OPEN TUESDAY – SATURDAY / 12 – 6 PM
AND BY APPOINTMENT
mail@adamskigallery.com
Story about UNDERWATER in Impakter Magazine
Article about UNDERWATER in Impakter magazine
It was a joy to write this story for Impakter Magazine about pollution and environmentalism, while thinking about my roots. I talk about UNDERWATER: a 7 channel video installation and operatic disco where I sing about global warming and pollution like a Jewish cantor on the Day of Atonement, while trance music arises from depth readings taken from 40 of my scuba dives. UNDERWATER opens at the Adamski Gallery in Berlin this May. If you have any stories about global warming, marine life, seas rising and hurricanes, please send them to mail@adamskigallery.com – they will be included in the show.
Story about UNDERWATER on ORF Radio in Austria
I’m thrilled about the wonderful story that aired on March 21 on ORF Radio: Ö1 in Austria about UNDERWATER: an operatic disco at KOENIG2 by_robbygreif. Many thanks to Hanna Ronzheimer for interviewing me and Robby Greif and for putting together the story! Listen to it via this link through March 28: http://oe1.orf.at/programm/20180321/509144
UNDERWATER: an operatic disco opens on March 8 in Vienna at KOENIG2 by_robbygreif
I’m really excited that my new project, UNDERWATER, is premiering this Thursday! It’s a 7-channel video installation that’s also an operatic disco. A fusion of environmentalism, trance music, and mysticism.
Watch the preview video to hear me singing about global warming like a Jewish cantor on the Day of Atonement.
And read more – press release below – about the project and its premiere at KOENIG2 by_robbygreif in Vienna.
Hope to see you soon!
Joel Tauber | UNDERWATER
KOENIG2 by_robbygreif
March 8 – April 21
Opening: March 8, 6-9 pm
UNDERWATER brings environmentalism, trance music, and mysticism together; as it suggests, in interactive and immersive ways, that we’re all connected to each other and to the land / sea – even if we have largely forgotten that and even if we have to collectively change our ways. As people dance in the UNDERWATER operatic disco, their movements – which echo Tauber’s – blur the distinctions between our bodies. The boundaries between the Self and the Other collapse; just as the distinctions between people / marine life blur, and the distinctions between the human built environment of the exhibition space and the underwater video world merge.
In the 7-channel video installation, 5 videos focus on what Tauber finds underwater: pollution, death, nausea, a beautiful sea turtle, and swaying kelp… A 6th video shows him disappearing into a cloud of air bubbles; and a 7th video shows a visual map of his 40 scuba dives, which slowly moves into existence from left to right in real time with the 51 minute musical piece.
The composition arises from depth readings recorded during every second of Tauber’s dives. Tauber assigned each dive an instrument and a beat and translated the movements of each dive in real time into music: the deeper the depth reading, the deeper the note. Sometimes, all 40 dives play together. Other times, a “band” of dives are heard. And, then there are moments when individual dives have “solos”. Tauber sings his dive depths (higher notes for the higher depths, deeper notes for the deeper depths) (“43 feet”… “80 feet”…) at various intervals to emphasize the relationships between his movements underwater and the music.
Tauber sings about seeking the Other (which is the chorus) in ways that evoke the Jewish cantorial scales; and he sings about pollution and global warming in ways that evoke the iconic old melody “Kol Nidre” from the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. So, there is a prayer-like / collective atonement element to this underwater rave.
8 drawings of the musical notes and lyrics in the composition will surround the videos, and overhead neon blue lights will illuminate the space.
Participation in the show can happen both directly, by experiencing the installation and dancing to its music; and also remotely, by responding to the call to send personal stories about global warming, marine life, seas rising, and hurricanes to koenig2@christinekoeniggalerie.at These stories will be included in the show.
The show will be visible 24/7 from the street via the gallery’s large windows; and on Thursday evenings from 7-9 pm, the gallery will open its doors so visitors can more fully experience the UNDERWATER operatic disco and dance in the space. Please contact the gallery to enter at other times as well.
KOENIG2 by_robbygreif • margaretenstraße 5 | 1040 vienna | austria • +43 1 585 74 74 • +43 677 61 38 31 76 • koenig2@christinekoeniggalerie.at • http://www.christinekoeniggalerie.com • http://www.koenig2.com
Searching For The Impossible: The Flying Project at the Moonens Foundation in Brussels
My film, “Searching For The Impossible: The Flying Project“, is on view through January 12 (by appointment) at the Moonens Foundation in Brussels. It’s part of the show, curated by Odie Cash / Platform 102, “There Is Always An Alternative.”
3 videos from Sick-Amour in a show at USC
Three videos from the Sick-Amour installation will be on display in the show, “Dirty Talk: Art. Environment. Action” at USC. There will be a current photo of the USC tree baby — which is now quite big! — and a map of its location on campus.
The show is going to be wonderful, and I hope to see you at the opening tomorrow night!
Article in Berlin Art Link about 7 Attempts To Make A Ritual and other works in the current show up at the Adamski Gallery
Thank you so much William Kherbek for your wonderful article in Berlin Art Link about Seven Attempts To Make A Ritual and the other super interesting works in the fantastic show (up through the end of July) that Stephan Adamski curated at his gallery in Berlin.