Exhibition Series
Alltagskultur und Gegenwartskunst im museumORTH
curated by Hilde Fuchs
as part of the jubilee Karl Schiske
2016 July 4 to November 1

Josef Reiter’s sound installation in the tower room of the Schloss Orth explored the tension between place, sound, space, and architecture. Using an analysis of the specific tone quality of the exhibition site as a starting point, the artist produced a 6-channel audio installation with two sound levels. Some of the sounds he recorded in his studio and consisted of samples of instruments from the Renaissance (when the castle was built) as well as percussion instruments, like marimbas or bell plates. Using minimal electronic interventions, he manipulated the sounds, filtered them, adjusted them to the room, and finally mixed them. His reference point for structuring the sounds was the twelve-tone row from the 5th Symphony, op. 50, Auf B by the composer Karl Schiske from Orth, whose 100th birthday was celebrated in 2016. This twelve-tone row could be heard playing very slowly in many different variations from four speakers in the room. The other key sound component was the soundscape of the town of Orth itself. For this, students from the local secondary school recorded sounds from their surroundings. This sound mixture could be heard in combination with Reiter’s own recordings from the area around the Schloss Orth and the Danube wetlands.