Maryanne Amacher: Intelligent Life

June 6 – August 24, 2014

The exhibition presents the work of American composer and artist Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009). Amacher studied in the 1960s with Karlheinz Stockhausen and, in the 1970s and 1980s, she worked together with John Cage and Merce Cunningham. She was also a fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. Early on, she experimented with relationships between sound and space, and explored the physiological conditions of hearing. Despite her significant production and her substantial influence on a younger generation of artists, not least due to her long-term educational activities, she is a kind of "artists’ artist" and is in the European context still known by a mostly specialized public. The exhibition „Intelligent Life“ shows, for the first time, a comprehensive overview with rarely seen archive material, photography, scores, and sound recordings from the artist. The presentation will focus on two comprehensive groups of works: the series „City Links (1967-1988) andIntelligent Life, which Maryanne Amacher had been intensively developing since the 1980s, both experimenting with the possibilities of new technologies. The exhibition follows the interdisciplinary and research-based practice of the artist and explores Maryanne Amacher's influence on both the practice of contemporary art and music. A project of the festival bonn hoeren 2014 from the Beethoven Foundation for Art and Culture Bonn in collaboration with the Bonner Kunstverein and the Berlin Artist Program of the DAAD, curated by Axel Wieder in collaboration with Bill Dietz, Micah Silver, and Robert The (Maryanne Amacher Archive, Kingston, NY). The exhibition Intelligent Life was first presented in 2012 at the daadgalerie in Berlin.

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel

Maryanne Amacher, Intelligent Life, installation view, 2014, Bonner Kunstverein. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Simon Vogel