Stefan Römer performs quotations from cultural or musical theoreticians commenting on performances by two iconic musicians, Syd Barrett and
Conrad Schnitzler.
In 2018, Stefan Römer performed quotations from cultural or musical theoreticians commenting on performances by Syd Barrett and Conrad Schnitzler, at the CTM Festival Berlin. The quote is used as a word score that functions as an instruction for the sound performance. Stefan Römer has attempted to reach a similar psychedelic state of mind similar to that of the referenced artists, using an LSD substitute. The performative staging of textual citations, an instrumentation to those of the historical events, and an altered state of consciousness works to deconstruct conventional understandings of music.
This album is the first publication presenting results of Stefan Römer's project "DECONCEPTUALIZE!" that he has been able to plan as an awardee of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme. In this project, he applies a deconstructivist re-reading of the discourse of conceptualism under the changed and problematic cultural conditions of right-wing populism in the globalized world.
"… A well hypnotic, intense and time dissolving effect. Proper good, this."
— Nitestyles
Recorded live 28. Jan 2018 18:00 at CTM Festival, Kunstquartier Studio 1, Kunstraum.
Stefan Römer: Korg MS-50 (modified), radio, electric guitar (with: Vox Tonebender, Farfisa TR-60 deluxe combo), diverse metal boxes, pieces, metal chain, Sony Walkman Professional: original cassettes from
Conrad Schnitzler's archive and a spoken manual for a self-built sequencer .Danelectro DE 59M NOS (Standard 302 reissue), Selmer Fuzz-Wah pedal, Vox Tonebender, Farfisa TR-60 deluxe combo.
Stefan Römer (born 1960 in Katzenelnbogen, Germany) works as an artist and art theorist. He initiated the political activist art collective "FrischmacherInnen" in Cologne (1993–2000), was awarded the AdKV Prize for Art Criticism in 2000, and has held professorships at various art institutes. Since 1981, he has not only been a vegetarian, but also combines an ecological and ethical awareness in his art. In addition to his film Conceptual Paradise (2006) he developed an extensive web archive at the ZKM-website.
Stefan Römer's works are known for their deconstructivist approach to image, sound and text, combining various working methods of lense-based, time-based and performative practices. Römer uses the term "de-conceptual" to define his transmedial fusion of Conceptualism and Deconstructivism with postpanoptic, feminist and postcolonial practices. His de-conceptualization of art formulates a new kind of artistic REALsearch, by means of a multi-layered critique of prevailing discourses.
