Press Release November 6, 2014

From January 6 – 13, 2015, pioneers will KRAFTWERK 3-D concert series perform the 3-D concert series Der Katalog – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 at Berlin’s Neue Der Katalog – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Nationalgalerie. In these multimedia events surround sound and 3-D 06.01. – 13.01.2015 projections will blend perfectly with the architecture of the transparent Neue Nationalgalerie universal space of Mies van der Rohe. Kulturforum With KRAFTWERK’s performance, the Nationalgalerie takes temporary leave Potsdamer Straße 50 10785 Berlin of this important building, which from 1968 to today has hosted numerous collection presentations and exhibitions and in January 2015 is closing for Concert dates 06.01. – 13.01.2015, 9 pm several years of renovations. (Doors open: 7.30 pm)

Tickets With the 3D concert series Der Katalog – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, KRAFTWERK presents Ticket price per concert: 65 Euro eight performances from January 6 – 13, 2015, each evening focusing on one of plus advance ticket sale fee their legendary albums. Each multimedia performance will be complemented with a Tickets available at www.kraftwerk.tickets.de selection of additional compositions from their back-catalogue. Following their own The advance ticket sale starts on history, the albums will be presented in chronological order: 15.11.2014, 9 am

1 Autobahn (1974), 2 Radio-Aktivität (1975), 3 Trans Europa Express (1977), Press contact concert series 4 Die Mensch-Maschine (1978), 5 Computerwelt (1981), 6 Techno Pop (1986), Dr. Katharina von Chlebowski 7 The Mix (1991), and 8 Tour de France (2003). Markus Farr Fon +49 (0)30 26 39 48 80 Fax +49 (0)30 26 39 48 811 The multimedia project KRAFTWERK was founded by Ralf Hütter and Florian presse@freunde-der- nationalgalerie.de Schneider in 1970 in Düsseldorf’s experimental art scene. At the same time, the www.freunde-der-nationalgalerie.de group established the legendary Kling-Klang-Studio, where all KRAFTWERK Press contact albums were conceived, composed, and produced. Numerous live performances Staatliche Museen zu Berlin were held at art museums and galleries in the surrounding Rhine region. Generaldirektion Stauffenbergstraße 41 10785 Berlin KRAFTWERK then went on to write music history over more than four decades, celebrating success worldwide. They are considered a key influence on a wide Mechtild Kronenberg Press, communication, sponsoring range of musical styles, including electro, hip-hop, synthpop, minimal, and [email protected] especially techno. Already since the early years in the early 1970s, KRAFTWERK www.smb.museum engaged with the developments of modern technology and anticipated the Anne Schäfer-Junker soundtrack of our digital computer age, definitively shaping it. Very early on, they Press took up the issue of a world dominated by machines, computers, and data, with Fon +49 (0)30 266 42 34 02 Fax +49 (0)30 266 42 34 09 their electronic and synthetic sounds, automatic and machine-based rhythms, with [email protected] their sound poetry, strongly reduced texts, and an appearance modeled on robotics www.smb.museum/presse in terms of both their music and language.

The exhibition is made possible by From the very start, KRAFTWERK designed their concerts as audiovisual the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie and is supported by performances, where sound and image, music and the projection of computer Volkswagen. animations are interfused with one another. Their sound and visual worlds not only influenced the history of contemporary music, but also that of visual culture. The texts, their style, and media-reflexive strategies already very early on explored the

Page 1 of 2

most important issues of the age of information: the collaboration of man and machine.

In 2014 Ralf Hütter and his former partner were honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

KRAFTWERK’s performance at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie should be understood as a programmatic statement, a dialogue between serial-minimalist music and formally extremely reduced architecture, a wonderful encounter between pioneers of the electronic age with a great visionary of public space.

The concert series conclude a longer program marking the close of Neue Nationalgalerie for renovations. With Otto Piene. More Sky and the Sky Art Event, as well as with the slide projection The Proliferation of the Sun, in the summer of 2014 the Nationalgalerie recalled the time of artistic transformation around 1970, art’s expansion into public space, and concepts of artistic freedom. With the intervention Sticks and Stones by David Chipperfield (on view until December 31, 2014), the Nationalgalerie directs attention to the special construction of the building, the freely floating hall, and to fundamental aspects of architecture in general. Numerous performance works animated this installation during the Festival of Future Nows, held at the end of October 2014 together with Olafur Eliasson and his Institut für Raumexperimente.

With the 3-D concert series KRAFTWERK – Ralf Hütter, Henning Schmitz, Fritz Hilpert, – will emphasize the stage-like arrangement of the famous glass hall once again. The universal, clear visible space was designed by Mies van der Rohe as an open event location. The concerts reflect the vitality and complexity of a museum today.

Page 2 of 2