Goethe-Institut Australia presents: DR. MOTTE

Urban Subcultures: Geniale Dilletanten and more… The Goethe-Institut Australia invited Dr. Motte to be part of their Urban Subcultures project.

Urban Subcultures is a curated event series that showcases the intense flurry of subcultural activity in 1980’s Berlin and beyond, and its legacy in contemporary artistic practice. The program is anchored by the international touring exhibition Geniale Dilletanten at Melbourne’s RMIT Gallery.
In addition, the GI programmed live performances by artists such as Automat, Hauschka, and Robert Henke as well as panel discussions featuring, among others, Love Parade founder Dr. Motte and visual arts curator, Mathilde Weh…
The founder of the Love Parade appears as a speaker and DJ at the following events:

Nov 12th, 2015 – Exhibition Opening “Geniale Dilletanten” @ RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
The Exhibition “Geniale Dilletanten and Australian ingenious amateurs” is initiated and curated by the Goethe-Institut. “Geniale Dilletanten” was originally the deliberately misspelled title of a concert held in Berlin’s Tempodrom in 1981. The title has become a synonym for a brief era of artistic upheaval in Germany. The intense cultural activity of this period developed particularly in and around art schools and was marked by cross-genre experimentation and the use of new electronic equipment. Musical craftsmanship was frequently spurned. To illustrate the extraordinary innovative spectrum of this subculture the exhibition presents the work of seven bands, in addition to various artists, filmmakers and designers from the most stimulating cities and regions in West and East Germany.

Nov 13th, 2015 – Filmscreening: “B – Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin (1979 – 1989)” @ RMIT Gallery
An Essay-Film narrated by producer and musician Mark Reeder, B-MOVIE is a fast-paced collage of unreleased film and TV footage, photos, and original interviews compiled by Hoppe, Maeck, and Lange. It dramatized scenes that illustrate Reeder’s account of the music, art and chaos in West Berlin of the 1980s

Nov 14th, 2015 – “Berlin: City Of Exiles” @ Face the Music Conference, Melbourne
Immersed in punk and electronic subcultures, Berlin has long held a creative allure for Melbourne’s music makers – attracting acts such as The Birthday Party, Ash Wednesday, Mick Harvey and the late James Cruickshank in the early ‘80s and influencing Melbourne’s rave scene in the ‘90s. This captivation is still evident in the artistic pilgrimages that continue today. We are joined by Dr. Motte, founder of Berlin’s Love Parade, Jochen Arbeit (Einstürzende Neubauten / Die Haut / Automat), Berlin-based writer of City Of Exiles Stuart Braun and electronic producer and lecturer David Haberfeld (aka Honeysmack) to discuss the grit and glitz of musically-inspired urban subcultures.

The session will also explore the influence of Geniale Dilletanten, Germany’s formative era of musical upheaval 1979-84, the subject of a visiting exhibition currently at RMIT Gallery. Presented by the Goethe-Institut as part of the Urban Subcultures series.

Nov 15th, 2015 – Dr. Motte @ Glebe Street Fair
Dr Motte, world famous techno DJ and founder of the Love Parade, comes to Australia to discuss urban subcultures and his considerable experience organisating grassroots events.
In the early 1980s he was a member of various post-punk bands with colourful names such as Deutsch-Polnische Agression (DPA), before he moved on to electronic music and to the creation of the world’s best known techno festival in 1989. This first edition of the festival was attended by 150 people. By 1999, attendance had climbed to 1.5 million people.

Here is how the day will pan out:
11am: Dr Motte discusses grassroots organisation in panel discussion at Glebe Street Fair
4pm: Dr Motte spins some hot techno tunes at Glebe Street Fair
6pm: Move over to Glebe Town Hall and catch Berlin trance rock trio AUTOMAT featuring members of Einstürzende Neubauten and more.

Nov 18th, 2015 – Panel Discussion @ Goethe Institut, Sydney
In this panel discussion at the Goethe-Institut in Sydney, we will touch on conditions for artists in urban areas, and on the role that arts organisations and policy makers can play in providing a fertile ground for individual artists and grass-roots organisers.
The discussion will be followed by a Q&A session and the evening will end with a very special live music program: a one-off improvised session between Düsseldorf pianist Hauschka and Berlin dub-rock trio Automat.