Ludwig Harig | Radio plays
The 1960s are generally considered to be a time of change in the cinematic history, whereas the contemporaneous innovation attempts of radio play are less known. Ludwig Harig, versatile author and representative of concrete poetry, was one of their most formative protagonists with his technique of alienated original sound collage.
STATE FUNERAL I
Director: Johann M. Kamps , Sound and Technics: Eduard Kramer, Marlies Mathis, Adeltraut Schumann, Production: SR/WDR 1969, 63′
On 19 April 1967, Konrad Adenauer dies. From 33 hours of ARD’s tape recordings of accompanying coverages and live broadcasting, Harig collages a “documentary satire” in which the cited original material is transformed “without vulgar ’manipulation’ but through condensation, reduction, repetition into a comedy of language” (Jörg Drews). Aired in 1969, STATE FUNERAL I (1969) was temporarily banned from broadcasting and publication.
18 April, 6-11 pm & 19 – 21 April, 4-11 pm – Schaubühne Lindenfels
respectively as part of the exhibition – Free entrance
A FLOWERPIECE
Composition: Wolfgang Wölfer, Director: Hans Bernd Müller, With Günther Sauer, Joachim Nottke, Charles Wirths, Ensemble: Zürcher Kammersprechchor and the Kinderfunkensemble Christa Frischkorn, Production: SR/HR/SDR/SWF 1968, 53′
A FLOWERPIECE is the associatively disturbing merger of German nursery rhymes and fairy tale verses with diary notes of Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höß. The martial character of the seemingly harmless body of song becomes as much pointedly tangible In the overlapping sound and music levels as the outrageous juxtaposition of beauty of nature and the most conceivably horrid descriptions by Höß. Harig tackles a subject that has faced the problem of (artistic) portrayal like no other in an approach decidedly sceptical of representation. Furthermore, he does it to not “let the dust settle on the ramp” as in Höß’ account.
17 April, 6 pm – Luru Kino at the Spinnerei – Free entrance
Both radio plays in German
