Hanne Darboven (1941-2009) was a minimal and conceptual artist, best known for her installations consisting large and systematically organized sheets of handwritten text or tables of numbers. Her work is founded on a complex system of calculations, often based upon times and dates. It chronicles existence and evokes the unavoidable linear nature of time.

As a child, Hanne Darboven showed remarkable musical talent. She put this aside in favour of the visual arts, but music kept playing a role in her work. The proximity between a musical variation and Darboven’s handwritten number sequences with variants is obvious. In 1980, the artist started to translate her numerical systems into sequences of music (number 0 = note D, etc), resulting in fascinating sound…: a mixture of ‘mathematical’ and traditional German classical music. Darboven’s Requiem is a good example of this; it was written for organ and became the largest musical work that Darboven completed.

Thomas Mohr is a media artist in whose work systems and processes also play a large role. He refers both to conceptual and abstract tendencies in modern art and to automated, computer-generated processes. In his recent work, he became fascinated by the increase of visual information through digital photography. He uses a personal photo archive containing more than 300,000 pictures taken since 1985, re-organizing them in series and patterns, synthesizing and filtering them and confronting them with conceptual and musical themes and compositions.

544/544 (up/down)

Out of eleven CD Volumes of the Requiem of Hanne Darboven, eight have been recorded in St. Petri, the oldest existing church in the city of Hamburg. Darboven’s Requiem itself is based on the conversion of calendar dates into numbers and numbers into musical notes. 1528 photographs explore the church building and its context. Out of these, 1088 document the staircase in the tower. For each step two photos were taken: one up, one down. These pictures are processed frame by frame, in a system of expanding cycles based on exponentiation, approaching infinity.


"Connecting time, space,  history,  now,  experience. 544 stairs ascending, one by
on, having a view,  544 stairs descending, one by on, having another
view.
544/544 (Up /Down) is the second composition in a series reflecting on
various aspects of Hanne Darbovens work and music. Darboven (29 April
1941- 9 March 2009) best known for her large scale installations
consisting of handwritten tables of numbers was a composer as well.
Darboven’s Requiem itself is based on the conversion of calendar dates
into numbers and numbers into musical notes. Eight out of eleven CD
Volumes of the Requiem of Hanne Darboven have been recorded in St.
Petri, the oldest existing church in the city of Hamburg.
1528  photographs-taken shortly after a concert to remind of Darbovens
70 th  birthday - explore the church building and its context. Out of
these, 1088 document the staircase in the tower. For each step two
photos were taken: one up, one down. These pictures are processed
frame by frame, in  a system of expanding cycles based on
exponentiation,  approaching infinity." Read more...