Press Release
Linz, November 17, 2004

O.K spektral

Carl Michael von Hausswolff
The Complete Operations Of Spirit Communication
17. 12. 2004 – 20.02. 2005
Opening: Thursday, 16 December, 7 p.m.

Curator: Roland Schöny

The Swedish sound experimentalist and musician Carl Michael von Hausswolff is considered one of the leading figures in the field of radical sound performance. As an artist and curator, he has also been concerned with borderline situations in everyday life and in the field of culture for over two decades.
With his cross-media installation especially designed for the series O.K Spektral, he continues his many years of research into signals from the beyond. Oscilloscope and radar serve here as his preferred instruments for making phenomena visible and audible that are otherwise under the threshold of perception. Hausswolff also uses fine interferences from the electrical power grid and disturbances that occur in the course of technical communication as basic material for his acoustic and visual transpositions in the form of projections or digital prints minimalistically mounted on the wall.

The concept for the design of this walk-in installation is based on Hausswolff's fascination with the so-called old media of electronics. It is also part of the tradition of his exploration of the physical realities surrounding us in the invisible realm, the materialization of flows of information and energetic fields.

Carl Michael von Hausswolff was initially influenced by very differently oriented and highly striking figures such as the electronics pioneer and composer Karl Heinz Stockhausen or the serial music by Luigi Nono. Yet the Free Jazz adept Peter Brötzmann and his musical counterpart Brian Eno with his gentle ambient sounds are also cornerstones in Hausswolff's development.

Hausswolff himself operates with various media. He experimented with radio frequencies, for example, and used the tape recorder as his favorite documentation and sound weapon until well into the 1990's. Parallel to this he conducted studies with the sound of simple sinus vibrations, gradually transferring to work with DAT tapes, sampler and laptop. His installations with technical industrial elements from semi-public life raise questions about the core of communication.

As a visual artist Hausswolff, together with his musician colleague Leif Elggren, founded the Kingdom of Elgaland-Vargaland as a permanent project with a virtual nation, which established diplomatic relations with the NSK state associated with the Slovenian group IRWIN in 1994. In addition, Carl Michael von Hausswolff has taken part in numerous major exhibitions, such as Cities On The Move VI in Bangkok, documenta X, and the second Johannesburg Biennale; in 2001 he was co-curator for the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and curator for the Göteborg Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2003, which included artists such as Teresa Margolies, Kendell Geers, Kim Gorden, Candice Breitz, Franz Pomassl and Carsten Höller.
Carl Michael von Hausswolff was a Prix Ars Electronica prize-winner in 2002 (Digital Musics).

Together with the electronic musician Andrew McKenzie, Carl Michael von Hausswolff has performed as part of the Hafler Trio, and in the course of his eccentric interest in unusual sound material, in 1987 he came across the late tape recorder voice researcher Friedrich Jürgenson, who was popular in Sweden. Hausswolff has presented Jürgenson's archive in numerous exhibitions, such as the Phonorama currently at the ZKM in Karlsruhe. In his installation The Complete Operations Of Spirit Communication, Carl Michael von Hausswolff takes up central themes of his previous work and adapts them for a display especially created for the series O.K Spektral

Carl Michael von Hausswolff born 1956 in Linköpping, Sweden, lives and works in Stockholm.

Current CD: CM VON HAUSSWOLFF: Rats / Rattor(Laton 031)
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Selected solo exhibitions (1995-2001):

CM von Hausswolff @ Andrehn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, 2001
Bigert, Bergström & Hausswolff, Artspace 1%, Copenhagen, 2000
Bigert, Bergström & Hausswolff, Norrtälje Konsthall, 2000
SkucGallery (m. P. Hagdahl, L. Elggren) Ljubljana, 1999
Kiasma (with T. Grönlund/P. Nisunen), Helsinki, 1998
Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, 1998 Bijster Gallery, Amsterdam,1996
Thomas Nordanstad Gallery, New York 1996
Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, 1995

Selected group exhibitions (1996 – 2002)

CyberArts 2002, Linz
3D+, Brussels-Berlin-Dublin, 2001
Venice Biennale, Nordic Pavilion, 2001
Pont St. Esprit, France, 2001
Mutations, Bordeaux 2000
PICAF, Pusan, South Korea, 2000
Volume, PS1, New York City, 2000
EV+A, Limerick, Ireland, 2000
Sound Art - Sound As Media, ICC, Tokyo, 2000
Cites On The Move VI, Bangkok, 1999 Göteborg Art Sounds,
Crossings, Kunsthalle Wien, 1998
Nuit Blanche, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 1998
Nordica, Helsinki, 1997
2nd Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa, 1997
5th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey, 1997 documenta X, Kassel, 1997
Manifesta 1, Witte de With, Rotterdam, 1996

Press information: Maria Falkinger, t:+43.732.784178-203, m.falkinger@ok-centrum.at