Tuned City - Ancient Messene

In a few days, the archaeological site of Ancient Messene will be transformed in to a vast platform for artistic production and presentation, discussion and intermediation of sound art and music in public spaces through a variety of formats in a direct interrelation with the local context and a vital exchange with a local and international audience.

Tuned City – Ancient Messene follows on from previous iterations curated by Carsten Stabenow in Berlin 2008, Tallinn 2011, and Brussels 2013 This year, in collaboration with the Onassis Cultural Centre Tuned City seeks out the exemplary ‘ideal city’, the ancient Greek polis.

The archaeological site and active excavation, with all its layers of history, is the ideal place to reflect on the ‘city as a construct’ and to explore the sensual aspects of space as well as the social and political dimensions of the city. Urban planning was about more than engineering a functional city. It was about creating an environment that expressed and nurtured the ideals of its citizens.

What do we project on a site like this? How do we trace and preserve history and how does this shape contemporary and future culture identities? What lies underneath and in-between the monumentalised obvious findings? How can we decode sedimented memories? What is the difference between local and distant, past and present modes of memory? How can we access or activate different modes of perception?

Tuned City – Ancient Messene is part of the Creative Europe co-funded Interfaces project, coordinated by the Onassis Cultural Centre. Interfaces is an international, interdisciplinary project focusing on bringing new music to an extensive range of new audiences. Within this context Tuned City is also a fascinating proposal of innovative ways to bring together archaeological sites and contemporary artistic research and practice.

For more information: https://www.interfacesnetwork.eu/post.php?pid=38-tuned-city