The Inebriation of Being residential workshop

THE INEBRIATION OF BEING
residential workshop inspired by the three books of the “Feasts” and the “Monastic Rules” by Hermann Nitsch

heald by theatrum phonosophicum (Leopoldo Siano & Shushan Hyusnunts)

5th-8th September 2024, Nitsch Museum, Naples

Harmating, Asolo and Cuma, written in the 1970s and courageously published (in German) by Peppe Morra in precious editions, represent a “secret part” of Nitschʼs work. Never translated and little known even in the German-speaking world, even for connoisseurs of the Viennese masterʼs oeuvre they have always remained on the margins compared to his other scores and theoretical-poetical writings. Harmating, Asolo and Cuma, despite their conceptual and utopian dimension, were conceived by the author to be performed in three specific places (Harmating in Bavaria, Asolo in Veneto and Cuma in Campania), but they remained unrealised. Yet they still are a treasure chest that reveals fundamental and radical aspects of Nitsch’s poetic-philosophical-musical thought. These three books, together with the Ordensregeln (“Rules of the Order”, of monastic and anarchist inspiration), are the attempt to extend the principles of his Orgien Mysterien Theater to everyday life, transfiguring the latter into a total work of art.

In this four-day theoretical-practical workshop, Hermann Nitsch’s “philosophy of being” will be explored in depth, cultivating it practically through a ritual composition of each day with readings, listening, meditations, walks, contemplative observations of the landscape, poetic acts that intensify the feeling of being. In the spirit of Hermann Nitsch, philosophy is understood as a practical technique of being, and art as an exercise in perception and sensation.

Purposes
– to become familiar with the “philosophy of being” and the poetic-musical-contemplative dimension of Hermann Nitschʼs work
– acquire greater awareness of the space in which everything happens
– exercise perception through the interaction of all five senses
– practice deep and prolonged listening as a creative activity
– open up to “total listening”: to sound and silence, outside and inside oneself, to the landscape
– learn the basic principles of ‘sound actionism’
– intensify the feeling of being through listening rituals, poetic acts and walks
– root yourself in the present, drinking from its sacred springs

Who is the workshop for?
The residential workshop is intended for Italian and foreign performers, researchers, musicians, dancers, singers, directors, actors, thinkers. It will be multilingual.
The workshop has a limited number of places (numerus clausus).
Participants will receive a certificate of participation.

Dates / Place / Timetable / Conditions
The workshop will take place from 5 to 8 September in Naples at the Sala Capriata of the Hermann Nitsch Museum (Vico Lungo Pontecorvo 29/d, https://www.museonitsch.org/en/) at the following times:
from 10am to 1pm and from 4pm to 7pm.

Depending on the kairós, morning and night walks in the surrounding area will be possible.

The workshop is conceived strictly offline, there will be no use of telephones or internet connections during the work.

How to apply / Deadline
It is essential to send your application briefly explaining your background and interests to:
phonosophianova@gmail.com
You can submit your application from 21 June to 15 August 2024.

Cost and registration methods
The participation fee is 200.00 euros

Early bird price: The participation fee will have a discounted cost of 150.00 euros for those who send their application by 15 July 2024.

Results of the selection
Selected participants will be contacted by the organizational secretariat on
– 22 July 2024 (for applications received before 15 July 2024)
– 22 August 2024 (for applications received after 15 July 2024)

Registration is completed upon receipt of the copy of the bank transfer of the 50% deposit, within five days following communication of the outcome of the selections.
After this date the candidacy lapses. Please note that the deposit is non-refundable.

Payment can only be made by bank transfer.
All other expenses (travel, food, accommodation) have to be covered by the participants.

THEATRUM PHONOSOPHICUM
The theatrum phonosophicum is the “theater” of phonosophia (understood as “knowledge through sound”), a research and life project that encourages the creation of experiential spaces in which ancient knowledge of Tradition is combined with experimental practices (“lecture-performance”, installations, sound art, acousmatics, deep listening etc.). A knowledge that is therefore not only bookish, but experienced through all senses. Hence the aspiration to the synthesis of the arts, to the Gesamtkunstwerk (from ancient Greek theater to Richard Wagner and the avant-gardes). Core of the theatrum phonosophicum is listening, understood as Seinserfahrung (“experience of being”) and the anthropological engagement with Sound, with sounds in space, i.d. with soundscape and acoustic archetypes.

For more informations: https://theatrumphonosophicum.art/

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Leopoldo Siano (born 12th August 1982) is a philosopher of music and sound actionist. Early on he moved to Germany. From 2012 to 2022 he taught at the University of the Cologne (in the same Musicological Institute where Marius Schneider, one of his great inspirations, taught between 1950s and 1970s). Here, Siano is also co-organizer of the Raum-Musik acousmatic concert series. He is author and editor of several books (on Karlheinz Stockhausen, Hermann Nitsch, François Bayle, etc.). His latest volume has been published in 2021 by the publisher Königshausen & Neumann (Würzburg): Musica Cosmogonica: von der Barockzeit bis heute (Cosmogonic Music: From the Baroque Era till Today). Together with Shushan Hyusnunts, he is the creator of the theatrum phonosophicum and the homonymous multisensorial series which started in the autumn of 2022 at the “Ground Floor” of the State Philharmonia of Armenia in Yerevan.
Since spring 2023, he is living in Naples as “researcher in residence” at the Hermann Nitsch Museum Archive Laboratory for Contemporary Arts (Morra Foundation).
Shushan Hyusnunts (born 3th February 1989 in Yerevan) is a musicologist and sound performer. After completing her musicological studies at the Komitas State Conservatory in Armenia, 2012 she moved to Germany. In 2016 she graduated (Master of Arts) at the University of Cologne with a thesis on the philosophy of sound in Giacinto Scelsiʼs orchestral works. At the same university she also held courses about Horatiu Radulescu, Dmitri Shostakovich as well as about traditional Armenian music. She continued her teaching activities at the Yerevan Conservatory, where she taught history of Western music. The core of her work is the research and life project theatrum phonosophicum, together with Leopoldo Siano, and the homonymous multisensorial series which started in the autumn of 2022 at the “Ground Floor” of the State Philharmonia of Armenia in Yerevan.
Since spring 2023, she is living in Naples as “researcher in residence” at the Hermann Nitsch Museum Archive Laboratory for Contemporary Arts (Morra Foundation).