POWER PLANT.
3-D concert series “The Catalog – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8” January 6th, 2015 - January 13th, 2015
Neue Nationalgalerie

From January 6th to 13th, 2015, the Neue Nationalgalerie presents the electronic pioneers KRAFTWERK with the 3D concert series “The Catalog – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8” on eight evenings. In this multimedia event, surround sound and 3D projections will blend perfectly with the architecture of Mies van der Rohe's transparent universal space.

With the appearance of KRAFTWERK, the Nationalgalerie is saying goodbye to the important building, which has hosted numerous collection presentations and exhibitions from 1968 to the present day, and which will now close from January 2015 for several years of renovation.

With their 3D concert series “The Catalog – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8”, KRAFTWERK will focus on one of their legendary music albums on eight evenings from January 6th to 13th, 2015. The respective performance of the entire album is complemented by a selection of other compositions from their entire oeuvre. Following their own history, the albums are listed in chronological order: 1 Autobahn (1974), 2 Radio-Activity (1975), 3 Trans Europa Express (1977), 4 The Man-Machine (1978), 5 Computer World (1981), 6 Techno Pop (1986), 7 The Mix (1991) and 8 Tour de France (2003).

The multimedia project KRAFTWERK was founded in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in the context of the experimental art scene in Düsseldorf. At the same time, they built the legendary electronic Kling-Klang studio, where all KRAFTWERK albums were conceived, composed and produced. Numerous live performances took place in the art museums and galleries of the surrounding Rhineland.

KRAFTWERK have written music history for more than four decades and celebrated success around the world. They are considered the forefathers of various musical styles such as electro, hip hop, synth pop, minimal and especially techno. Since its beginnings in the early 1970s, KRAFTWERK have been associated with the developments of the most modern technologies and have anticipated and significantly shaped the soundtrack of our digital computer age. Very early on, with their electronic sounds and synthetic voices, the automatic and machine rhythms, with their sound poetry and the highly reduced, condensed texts as well as a well-designed robot appearance, they took up the theme of a world dominated by machines, computers and data, both musically as well as linguistically and visually.

From the beginning, KRAFTWERK designed their concert performances as overall audiovisual productions. Image and sound, performance and projection of computer animations interpenetrate each other; Their sound and visual worlds have had a lasting influence not only on the history of contemporary music, but also on that of visual culture. The texts, their style and media-reflexive strategies addressed the most important questions of the information age early on: the interaction between humans and machines.

In 2014, Ralf Hütter and his former partner were the only German artists to be honored with the Grammy for their life's work.

KRAFTWERK's appearance in the Neue Nationalgalerie should be understood as a programmatic statement: as a dialogue between serial-minimalist music and formally extremely reduced architecture, as a congenial meeting of pioneers of the electronic age with the great visionary of open space.

The concerts mark the end of a longer program to say goodbye to the Neue Nationalgalerie before its renovation. With “Otto Piene. More Sky" and the associated Sky Art Event" as well as with the slide projection "The Proliferation of the Sun", the National Gallery recalled the artistic awakening around 1970 in the summer of 2014, the conquest of public space, and the ideas of freedom the art. With the intervention “Sticks and Stones” by David Chipperfield, the National Gallery draws attention to the special construction of the building, to the free-floating hall, as well as to basic aspects of building in general. Numerous performative works finally brought this installation to life during the “Festival of Future Nows”, which took place at the end of October 2014 in collaboration with Olafur Eliasson and his “Institute for Spatial Experiments”.

With the 3-D concert series “The Catalog – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8” by KRAFTWERK – Ralf Hütter, Henning Schmitz, Fritz Hilpert, Falk Grieffenhagen – the stage-like layout of the famous glass hall is once again emphasized: the expansive exhibition space was designed by Mies van der Rohe as an open venue. The concerts reflect the liveliness and complexity of today's museum operations.