short vita

Interim Program Director | Sound Studies and Sonic Arts (M.A.) 

With a background in composition, sound and media artist Georg Klein has developed a multi-faceted artistic practice since 2001, in which he explores sound as a medium of art. In his installations and interventions - especially in public space - he condenses acoustic and visual, situational and political aspects into a 'space of tension' in which visitors are often involved interactively or participatively.

The starting point of his work is artistic research, the investigation of places, situations and themes, whose inherent conflict situations he elaborates and gives voice to in an aesthetic transformation. With his site-specific installations, concert pieces and radio play-like soundwalks, he challenges the perception of his audience, leads them into uncertain terrain, questions identities and evokes reflection, sometimes triggering fierce reactions from public and press alike. His has received numerous national and international awards (including the first German Sound Art Prize in 2002), scholarships and residencies. He also worked for several years as musical director at the theatre (Berliner Ensemble) and in multiple collaborations with the German national radio DeutschlandFunk Kultur.

Besides his artistic work, Georg Klein is a producer, curator and artistic director (bgnm - Berlin Society for New Music, KlangQuadrat GbR, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Errant Sound - Project Space for Sound Art, DYSTOPIE sound art festival Berlin). Since 1998 he has taught as a lecturer at various universities in Germany and abroad and has published numerous lectures, essays and interviews on sound art (Organised Sound, KUNSTFORUM International, MusikTexte, positionen, Zeitschrift für Neue Musik et al.). Since autumn 2022 he is a visiting professor and interim director of Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at the UdK Berlin.

Office: Lietzenburger Straße 45, 10789 Berlin

Publications

CATALOGS

Klein, Georg. Borderlines. German/English, Ed. Sabine Sanio, 2014. https://www.georgklein.de/borderlines.html

TEXTS

Wahrnehmung herausfordern / Challenging Perception Interview by Max Glauner, German.
KUNSTFORUM INTERNATIONAL, 2016, BD. 240: "GET INVOLVED - Participation as Artistic Strategy"

Gratwanderung zwischen Kunst und Politik. SoundArt between Art and Politics. Interview by Stefan Fricke with Georg Klein
German, In: MusikTexte 135, Cologne 2012

Klein, Georg. "Site-Sounds. On Strategies of Sound Art in Public Space." In Organised Sound 14/1. London: Cambridge University Press, 2009.