Sound Machines: Kagel’s Zwei Mann Orchester

Part of Mauricio Kagel: Zwei Mann Orchester →

Mauricio Kagel’s Zwei Mann Orchester (1971–73) is a large-scale kinetic sound sculpture that uses orchestral instruments, household and found objects, connected through a network of levers and strings. While it is based on a notated score, complete with musical fragments, choreographic indications and sketches of sound machines, the machine itself is designed and built by the performers and sculptors, so every version is unique and exists as both a sculpture and a performance object.

The work premiered at the Donaueschingen Festival in 1973 and was recreated at Documenta IX (1992) in Kassel and at Basel’s Museum Tinguely in 2011. This edition, at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery, was the U.S. premiere and only the fourth version ever created.

Exhibition: May 3 to May 31, 2018
Performances: May 3, 4, 13, 17, 20, 24 and 30
Location: Pearlstein Gallery, Drexel University

Zwei Mann Orchester: Philadelphia Edition was designed and built by Neil Feather, Scott Kip, Yona Davidson, Andy Thierauf, Ashley Tini and Dustin Hurt, and performed by Andy Thierauf and Ashley Tini.

Major support for Zwei Mann Orchester has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the William Penn Foundation.