GÖTEBORG ART SOUNDS 2018
28/9 - 6/10
Göteborg Art Sounds 2018
Today we can see that the distance between people are growing. But at the same time, as a consequence of new technical possibilities, the world is also growing smaller every day. Paradoxically we see how countries and their leaders chose to close their borders and build walls, rather than opening up. And this is happening right now, when the need for dialogue has never been more urgent.
We believe that art can help formulate critical questions, questions that we may not hold the answers to, but that can be part of an ongoing dialogue. It is our conviction that it is often more important to ask questions, than finding actual answers. We believe in art that is bold enough to challenge and that dare to be uncomfortable. Art that can problematize and that hopefully makes us question the world around us. Art that refuse to give simple answers.
Since a few years back, we are part of several international festival networks, consisting of artistic directors and curators. In order to address issues regarding the role of art in a rapidly changing world – and as a way of changing the way we program and what the festival is and can be – for the 2018 edition of the festival we have chosen to collaborate with four international guest curators, who’ve all helped shape this year’s festival program. The curators are Anna Berit Asp Christensen from the SPOR Festival in Denmark, Joost Fonteyne, artistic director of the festival Wilde Westen in Belgium, Lauren Pratt from Redcat in Los Angeles, USA and Peter Burton, artistic director for the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival in Montreal, Canada. We believe that this will strengthen us as a festival, and we also believe this will help us broaden the view on what sounding art can be.
Since the start in 1999, we have presented artists and composers from all around the world, and next year we turn 20. Our ambition is to change the world, if perhaps just a tiny bit. Using art, we want to shed a light on and influence the world we live in. We want to thank you for joining us in 2018 and we hope you’ll join us for the many years to come.
// Staffan Mossenmark
Artistic Director
Save the Date!
Göteborg Art Sounds Festival 2018 will take place between September 28th - October 6th (28/9-6/10). Please save these dates and we will within shortly get back with more information about this years artists as well as our thoughts on the theme for this years festival.
Organisation GAS 2018
New for this year is that we have invited four Artistic guest curators that in addition/together with the Artistic director Staffan Mossenmark have worked on the programme and have selected artists from all over the music world to be played at the festival.
Swedish composer and sound artist Staffan Mossenmark is an often hired lecturer and leader of workshops at art, architect and design schools both in Sweden and internationally. A big part of his artistry and composing is the interest of our everyday sounds. By composing with sounds that you can easily recognize, he has managed to reach out to a general audience, outside the traditional music and culture audience. Staffan is also full professor at the Academy of Music and Drama, Göteborg University, Sweden. He has been the Artistic Director for the festival since 2009.
Staffan Svensson, trumpet player and composer. Born 1963 in Falkenberg and living in Göteborg. Since last three decades frequently seen at the Scandinavian and the European stages for jazz and improvised music. In acoustic aswell as in electro-acoustic groups and also in interaction with contemporary classical music, choir music and modern dance.
Anna Berit Asp Christensen is an artist and curator with strong roots in both classical and new music. Her activities are partly based on her past as a practising, classically trained musician, and partly related to comprehensive work on the theory and dissemination of music. Her practice is characterised by a constant investigation of the potential of experimental art music as well as its range and position on the contemporary art scene. Christensen’s work has displayed an impressive breadth in its knowledge of repertoire – also within various art forms ranging from art music and sound art to performance art, modern dance and concept art. This finds expression in her works, which mainly seek to link up with other art forms in order to place music in new perspectives. Typical of her is her ability to compose meetings, between musical genres as well as to get music to cohere as an unified genre compared to other art genres
Lauren Pratt is the CalArts Producer for Music at REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theatre) in downtown Los Angeles, and an in-house producer for many CalArts music events including the Wild Beast Concert Series. She coordinates the Music/Work program in the Herb Alpert School of Music, which provides individual advising for students and alumni, and work experience through: independent study and internships, access to industry professionals, the CalArts Music Source booking agency, the Student Music Producer program, and the CalArts Soundstream Showcase at the Troubadour. Executor of the James Tenney Estate, she recently helped coordinate the world premiere performance of Tenney's Changes: 64 Studies for 6 Harps in Los Angeles, and will be producing its studio recording for release in 2018. She is co-editor of Tenney's collection of essays From Scratch: Writings in Music Theory. 
Producentbyrån was founded in 2008. We are a team of producers and project managers working with various artists, companies, festivals, conferences and projects in performing arts, both in Sweden and internationally. Our services consist of tour management, communication, project management, coordination, production, administration and economy.
Fredric Bergström is a multi-talented human that not only turn the crank on his Hurdy-gurdy to make noise/drone music, but also know one or two stuff about the internetz and how to make web sites come alive. He has been involved with the GAS-websites since the very first edition 1999.