Bruchstücke by Karl Salzmann

Bruchstücke by the Vienna-based media artist Karl Salzmann, the fifteenth release in the Moozak Catalogue, is a noteworthy release in a number of ways: The record itself is not, pressed on vinyl, as one would expect from a 7". Also, not one disc is the same as the other. This record is made of plaster and varies in different shades of gray and black. It is heavy, rough, sharp-edged and yet sensitive and fragile. The sounds present on the record are concrete: Glass, stone, metal, wood and other materials burst, break and are acoustically captured in this moment of breaking and transferred into an arrangement. In addition, the record is neither available digitally, nor is it available in a record store. The release, which comes with a booklet containing a text by Lona Gaikis and photographs by Markus Gradwohl, is only exclusively available by mail order and thus, will almost certainly arrive broken at the recipient.

Bruchstücke is released in a strictly limited edition of 20. Each copy is handmade by the artist himself and sent with a signed and numbered Polaroid of the respective disc. “Whenever something breaks, there is also the beginning of something new”, is Salzmann's advice. And so the recipient has the opportunity to reassemble the plaster fragments and form a new record with the help of the enclosed tube of glue. The cracks and break points become part of the composition, and so each copy is also sonically unique thanks to the participation of the owner.

Karl Salzmann is an artist active in the field of sound, process and conceptual art. In addition to his independent artistic practice - solo exhibitions and performances in New York, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Bratislava, Athens, Shanghai, among others - he was involved in the planning and implementation of several exhibitions, festivals and concert events dealing with the subject of sound - and involved abroad. From 2016 to 2019 he was - together with Thomas Wagensommerer and Paul Gründorfer - artistic director of the exhibition and performance room “Zentrale. Space for sound and process art ”in Vienna Ottakring. He also taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences and the Berlin University of Popular Arts. In 2017 Salzmann received the Erste Bank MehrWert Art Prize and in 2019 the Austrian State Scholarship for Media Art.

Moozak is a platform and label for experimental music founded in 2007 and based in Vienna, Austria.

moozak.org
Facebook
Instagram