SONify!

About the festival

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SONify! is a festival of music and performing arts that showcases the innovative artistic practice developed within the framework of the Doctoral School for Artistic Research of the Kunstuniversität Graz. It is an initiative of the Artistic Doctoral Candidates of the Doctoral School, who conceive and organize the festival. This year’s edition is organised by Elina Akselrud, Márcio Steuernagel, Jakob Stillmark, Helēna Sorokina, Faidra Chafta-Douka and Po-Yu Wang. SONify! 2022 will be a four-day festival, happening from 18 to 21 May in Graz. In a special combination of unusual concert formats, concert lectures, multimedia presentations and informal talks, the festival emphasizes the artistic components of each doctoral candidate’s research, bringing the general public in direct contact with the most recent and exciting frontiers of artistic research. Stemming from the internationally pioneering and state-of-the-art model of artistic research developed at the KUG, SONify! creates the unique opportunity to experience artistic practice directly, as a form of knowledge in itself, in a new and direct way. Focusing on the artistic rather than the scholarly components enables direct and intuitive access to research results and immersive experience of the discovery process, creating a forum for exchanging and discussing ideas that emerge from our projects. Thus, SONify! stands as a counterpart to the ARTIkulationen symposium of the Artistic Doctoral School, which gives more space to the academic-scientific side of artistic research. The name SONify! points to the main aim of the festival: to show the tangible, audible and sensible dimensions of artistic research. This is an important step out of the walls of the academy and towards the general public, enhanced by the possibility of informal talks and exchange. Bringing the diversity of different projects under one roof, the festival also highlights the plurality and multiplicity of the field. In contrast to isolated concerts, the format festival makes visible several different views, diverse qualities, multiple positions, allowing the emergence of cross-connections and making exchange possible.

SONIfy! is now going to its third edition. The first SONify! took place in May 2019. The festival survived the COVID crisis by distributing the concerts planned for 2020 in a series of mixed live-streams and restricted live-audience concerts during 2021, with the generous understanding of our sponsors. This resilience attests to the relevance of the event. The possibility to have a whole festival once more with a live audience addresses a stringent need of both the audience and the public. It attests to the centrality of art in Austrian and European culture, and as a shared non-negotiable value for all humanity. It testifies to the importance of the steadfast support provided by funding institutions, sponsors, and foundations. SOnify! 2022 aspires to bring the hope and energy artists and audience need now, pointing to things yet to come in the arts and in social life. To do this, SONify! 2022 brings a wide range and high quality of artistic contributions. Renowned international artists, preeminent Austrian musicians and up-and-coming Graz ensembles come together, confirming Steiermark once again as a unique location for artistic research in Europe, with world-wide impact.

Art, like knowledge, should be accessible to all: thus, admission to all SONify! concerts and events is free of charge.

Sponsored by:

                                                

Location

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