Kai Bienert: “MaerzMusik 2002–2014”

Year for year, photographer Kai Bienert has been focusing his lens on the tumultuous events at MaerzMusik – the festival of contemporary music of all hues with interesting and multifaceted faces representing contemporary musical life and barely any conventional artistic formats. Legends such as Michael Nyman and Steve Reich have stood in front of his camera, as well as smaller celebrities such as the now mute budgie Sparkie Williams. It was a true challenge to pad unnoticed through the “absolute dark”, not only during concentrated and concertante silence but also through multidimensional art spaces, and yet always ensure a surprising turn was not missed and did not go undocumented.

With his photographs, Kai Bienert affords us a brief retrospective of many unique moments initiated by Matthias Osterwold, the artistic director of MaerzMusik, with his multifaceted festival programme between 2002 and 2014.