Rotunda Project 2025 | Rupert Huber. Music of Encounters

Rotunda Project 2025 | Rupert Huber. Music of Encounters

Rotunda Project 2025 | Rupert Huber. Music of Encounters

Rupert Huber, Sketch for “Walking Music”, Sound, space and overtone relationship, Vienna 2019 © Rupert Huber
Rupert Huber, Sketch for “Walking Music”, Sound, space and overtone relationship, Vienna 2019 © Rupert Huber

Exhibition

Rotunda Project 2025 | Rupert Huber. Music of Encounters

Pinakothek der Moderne | Art
06.06.2025 — 09.11.2025
Rotunde

Music comes to life between people. That is the guiding principle of the musician, composer and music artist Rupert Huber. He has created a piece of music in dialogue with Ars Electronica Solutions especially for the Rotunda of the Pinakothek der Moderne, which is performed by the museum’s visitors. It is their movements that trigger the melodic sequences of the composition, creating the music of encounters.

‘Social Music’ is the term for Rupert Huber’s musical-spatial format in which human encounters are transformed into music. ‘Social Music’ expands the traditional musical system of temporal development and pitch to include the realm of the possible, not the predetermined.

The ‘Music of Encounters’ is likewise based on being able to incorporate unpredictable events into a composition - by means of interaction: a person moves, a sensor detects their movement and triggers a melodic tone sequence. In this way, several people create a kind of symphony: their encounter is not only orchestrated,it is the basis of the music installation - a symphony of people coming together. The sounds are adapted to the architectural situation of the rotunda in the Pinakothek der Moderne; the proportions of the space determine the harmonisation of the voices. Rupert Huber (*1967) is based in Vienna and works internationally. Innovative approaches and new forms of musical expression make him an important figure in the contemporary music scene. As a composer, he is best known for his music installations, the electronic music project ‘tosca’ and his piano pieces. To him, music is communication and a contribution to mutual understanding.

In cooperation with 
Ars Electronica Solutions
Michael Mondria, Managing Director
Harald Moser, Creative Direction & Project Management
David Holzweber, Technical Operations

Petros Kataras, Creative Engineering
Renée Gadsden, Artistic Advisor
AVL Cultural Foundation

The Project has been made possible by  
PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne e.V.

The Project has been supported by 
Ars Electronica Solutions
AVL Cultural Foundation
Fohhn Audio AG
Rent.Group

Thanks to 
Miro Craemer

Anton Biebl, Interim Director of the Bavarian Sate Painting Collections
Bernhart Schwenk, Chief Curator, Contemporary Art, Pinakothekt der Moderne
Rupert Huber, Composer, in conversation with Renée Gadsden, Art and Cultural Historian 

Lena Fankhauser, Viola

Lena Fankhauser is a Trinidadian-Swiss violist born in Montreal who studied at institutions including the Yehudi Menuhin School, Juilliard, and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She has performed worldwide in venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, and played with ensembles including the Vienna State Opera, Munich Philharmonic, and Chineke! Orchestra. A passionate chamber musician, she is a founding member of the Koehne Quartet, (CH)AMBER, and the Big Island Orchestra Vienna.

Rupert Huber in conversation with Bernhart Schwenk and Renée Gadsden 

Interactive tour with Domenica Ewald 

The interactive tour invites you to encounter Rupert Huber's rotunda project on a physical level and to explore how breath, sound and movement can make the museum space experienceable in a new way.

Renée Gadsden in conversation with Chief physician Gottfried Kranz, Neurologist, and Rupert Huber

Intercultural workshop 

Welcome to the KunstWerkRaum! In our intercultural programme, we invite you to meet people of different origins, languages and ages. 
Please register at kunstwerkraum@mpz-bayern.de

An encounter with the legendary festival for art, technology and society 

with Marold Langer-Philippsen, Rupert Huber and Harald Moser, Ars Electronica Solutions

Dalma Sarnyai, flute 
Lena Fankhauser, viola 
Rupert Huber, electronics

Dalma Sarnyai, born in 1995 in Sopron (Hungary), is a Vienna-based flutist and performer specialising in contemporary music. After completing her flute studies at the mdw with honours in 2023, she developed her own projects at the interface of music, performance and space. Her artistic practice combines classical repertoire with new forms of expression and ranges from solo concerts and chamber music to interdisciplinary performances in Europe.

Lena Fankhauser is a Trinidadian-Swiss violist born in Montreal who studied at institutions including the Yehudi Menuhin School, Juilliard, and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She has performed worldwide in venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, and played with ensembles including the Vienna State Opera, Munich Philharmonic, and Chineke! Orchestra. A passionate chamber musician, she is a founding member of the Koehne Quartet, (CH)AMBER, and the Big Island Orchestra Vienna.

Interactive tour with Domenica Ewald 

The interactive tour invites you to encounter Rupert Huber's rotunda project on a physical level and to explore how breath, sound and movement can make the museum space experienceable in a new way.

Rupert Huber, The Irvine

Finissage