Bernhard Gal
Owed to his multifaceted and interdisciplinary artistic approach, Austrian artist, composer and musicologist Bernhard Gal is equally at home within the domains of contemporary music, installation art and media art. As of now, Gal has created around 70 sound installations and intermedia art projects, combining sound, light, objects, spatial concepts and video projections into multidimensional and prevalently site-specific art works. He also composes music for acoustic instruments and electro-acoustic music. As a laptop musician, Gál has been performing extensively on five continents. Another aspect of his work are collaborations with fellow artists, including the Japanese architect Yumi Kori (‘audio-architectural installations’) and musicians such as Tung Chao-Ming, Kai Fagaschinski, Jennifer Walshe and Belma Beslic-Gál.
Born in Vienna, Austria in 1971, Gal began to nurture his interest in music and (sound) art around 1985. After studies at Vienna’s University of Music (Sound Engineering) and the University of Vienna (Musicology), and a year-long residency in New York City in 1997–98, he has focused on his compositional and artistic activities. He runs the art production hub Gromoga and serves as the artistic director of the Austrian art organization sp ce. Since 2006, Gál has been the creative head behind shut up and listen! - Interdisciplinary Festival for Music and Sound Art, in Vienna. Between 2006 and 2007 he taught sound art at the University of Arts in Berlin. Currently, Gál holds a research position at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg, in conjunction with the interdisciplinary doctoral college ‘Art and the Public Sphere’.
Gal's work has been presented in concerts, sound installations, exhibitions and radio portraits around the world. He has been invited to international music and art festivals (including Wien Modern Vienna; MaerzMusik Berlin; Sonambiente Berlin; Donaueschinger Musiktage; Nuova Consonanza Rome; MATA Festival New York; Soundfield Chicago; Mutek Montreal; Musicacoustica Beijing; FILE São Paulo) and frequently gives lectures and workshops.
For his music and art projects Gal has received several awards, including the Karl Hofer Prize Berlin 2001, an Annual Grant from SKE-Fonds Vienna 2002, a composer fellowship from the DAAD Artists in Berlin Programme 2003, the Austrian State Scholarship for Composition 2004, and the Outstanding Artist Award for Music of the City of Vienna 2010. His work has been made available on ca. 30 audio publications and documented with various catalogue books and DVDs. In 2005, the German publishing house Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg published a comprehensive catalogue book, documenting Gal’s intermedia installations since 1999.
Nationality
Medium
