Ed Kuepper's MFLL

Ed Kuepper's MFLL

with films by heimo zobernig (vienna) chris wilder + richard louderback (los angles) gerold miller (berlin) leni hoffmann (düsseldorf) jens haaning + chung haessen (copenhagen/berlin) dominique gonzalez-foerster (paris) liam gillick (new york) a.d.s. donaldson (sydney) tony clark + melita dahl (london/köln) eugene carchesio (brisbane) burchill/mccamley (melbourne)

Project Description
One of the ‘godfathers’ of punk music Ed Kuepper, together with musical collaborator Jeffrey Wegener, embark on a special adventure with an international cast of artists. Their mission: the raw physical interface between sonically explosive live-music and large-scale video projections. Inspired by the experimental films of Len Lye and embracing advanced as well as ‘primitive’ technologies and processes, sound and image merge in amazing synchronicities and to powerful effect. And while music and the moving image mix and mingle, there is also no clear sense of them being ‘illustrative’ of one another, as one tends to find with pop videos. Rather, the net result is a highly suggestive and independent reality, the ‘now’ perhaps only possible in a live concert-like situation. This project, which commenced in 2002 with Kuepper creating new scores for several short films by Len Lye, is now temporarily in recess and will reappear in 2006. For further information, contact David Pestorius on dpg@thehub.com.au.

Past shows
2004
9 July - Sydney Opera House
6 August - Institute of Modern Art/Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane
16 September - Les Soirées Nomades, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris
21 September - Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin
24 September - Burgtheater/Austrian Film Museum, Vienna
25 September - Musterraum, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
1 October - Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse
11 December - Pestorius Sweeney House, Brisbane
2005
19-20 February - Somerville Live, Perth International Arts Festival, Perth
16-17 July - Queensland Music Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse


The Musicians:
Ed Kuepper
Ed Kuepper was born in Bremen in 1955. His family migrated to Australia in 1960 and settled in Brisbane, where he lives today. In 1973, while still at high-school, Kuepper formed The Saints, the group widely acknowledged — along with The Sex Pistols and The Ramones — as having set the template which we today know as ‘punk’. Since the demise of The Saints in late 1978, Kuepper has continued to perform and record primarily as a solo artist. A newly remastered CD box-set of his work with The Saints was recently released by EMI Records, while a box-set of his equally seminal work with the Laughing Clowns (1979—84) is now available on Hot Records.

Jeffrey Wegener
Born in 1955 Jeffrey Wegener’s drumming has truly legendary status in Australia. Having played with Ed Kuepper in both The Saints and Laughing Clowns (he also played for a brief time in Nick Cave’s first group The Birthday Party), Wegener is perhaps the most natural musical foil for Kuepper’s exquisite rhythms and electric-guitar playing. Capable of great variation and subtlety, his jazz-inflected style has been described as “somewhere between Gene Krupa, Keith Moon and Elvin Jones”.

The Filmmakers:
Heimo Zobernig
Born in Mathuen, Austria in 1958, Heimo Zobernig has been based in Vienna for many years. He has participated in Documenta 9, 10 and 11.

Burchill/McCamley
Janet Burchill (b. 1955, Melbourne) and Jennifer McCamley (b.1957, Brisbane) have worked collaboratively for over 20 years. Their work has been presented by major art institutions in Australia and in Europe. For this project they collaborated with the New Zealand born artist Robin Hely, who works primarily in video and performance.

Chris Wilder + Richard Louderback
Born in Los Angeles in 1957, Chris Wilder is still based there today. His work was included in the major touring exhibition Sunshine & Noir: Art in L.A. 1960—97. His collaborator on this project, Richard Louderback, is also an artist in Los Angeles.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster was born in Strasbourg in 1965 and today lives in Paris. She is one of the most prominent French artists of her generation, with her work regularly shown in major international biennales, film festivals and surveys of contemporary art, including Documenta 11. To see the artist's film for this project, as it was presented at the Cartier Foundation, go to her website www.dgf5.com.

Jens Haaning + Chung Haessen
Jens Haaning was born in Copenhagen in 1965, where he is still based today. He is one of the most well-known Danish artists to emerge in the 1990s, while in 2002 his work was included in Documenta 11. His collaborator on this project, Chung Haessen, is a Korean artist based in Berlin.

Leni Hoffmann
Leni Hoffmann was born in Bad Pyrmont (Germany) in 1962 and is currently based in Düsseldorf. She is mostly known for her site-specific architectural interventions using brightly coloured plasticine, which have been realised internationally.

Gerold Miller
Gerold Miller was born in south Germany in 1961, although since 1998 he has lived in Berlin. In 2002 the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin hosted the first survey of his work.

A.D.S. Donaldson
A.D.S. Donaldson was born in Melbourne in 1961, although his formative years were mostly spent in Sydney, where he lives today. He has been a vociferous promoter of abstraction and the lessons to be learnt from the indigenous painters from Australia’s central desert regions.

Eugene Carchesio
Eugene Carchesio was born in 1960 in Brisbane, where he still lives today. He is a musician and an artist, whose work has been presented at the highest levels since the late 1980s.

Tony Clark + Melita Dahl
Born in Canberra in 1954, Tony Clark is now based in London. His work was included in Documenta 9, although is perhaps most widely known for gracing the covers of albums by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. His collaborator here, Melita Dahl, is a video artist based in Cologne.

Liam Gillick
Liam Gillick was born in Aylesbury (England) in 1964. These days Gillick is mostly to be found in New York. In 1997 his work was included in Documenta 10, while in more recent years he had a one-person exhibitions at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.