Biography
A lot of the time Mossenmark's artistry focuses on our public places, everyday sounds and the sounding things that surround us everyday. Working in public spaces and using them as arenas for artistic expression is a way of exploring venues and stages distinct from those that are traditional and defined as such. Public space is a place for free expression, a place where the city acts as the citizens' own veranda or patio and the square is the stage and space for manifestations, demonstrations or, quite simply, free speech. Public space is a venue where political, social and economic power structures operate together and society becomes visible. It is here that the observer and listener can focus on the social and sonic structures existing in these environments and create concentrations of these ongoing processes.
As a sound and performance artist with over 35 years' experience of working in public space, Mossenmark has found that one question in particular is the essential driving force behind his explorative interactions: what does it mean, artistically, to recognise and respect the democratic right of people to have access to art in what we call public space? He has succeeded in reaching out to a general audience, beyond the traditional music and culture audiences. For him an important, and indeed central, goal is to invite – and communicate with – an audience that has no special knowledge, and in this way try to break down the borders and hierarchies.
Mossenmark is today full professor at the Academy of Music and Drama, Göteborg University, Sweden. Between 2009–2023 he was artistic director of the festival GAS – Gothenburg Art Sounds and since 2007 has been one of the founder members of Verona Risuona, a festival in which art, music and performance take place in the streets and public spaces of Verona, Italy.
STAFFAN MOSSENMARK (born 1961)
Member of the Society of Swedish Composers (FST)
Member of the International Society For Contemporary Music (ISCM)
Full Professor, Academy of Music and Drama, Göteborg University
Artistic director Gothenburg Art Sounds 2009–2023
Artistic director Verona / Bolzano Risuona, Porto Sonora 2007–
Member of the Swedish Arts Grants Committee 2006–2012
Mossenmark is often seen as a boundary breaker, a person who has gone his own way. Internationally his compositions have been performed at concerts on radio and TV, as well as around Europe and in the USA, Canada, Japan, China and Australia.
Mossenmark is often hired as a lecturer and leader of workshops at art, architecture and design schools both in Sweden and internationally. In Sweden he teaches in sound art at the Academy of Music and Drama, Göteborg University, and is involved in the sound research group USIT – Urban Sound Institute.
A big part of Mossenmark's artistry is the interest of everyday sounds and the sounding things that surround us every day. By composing with easily recognisable sounds, Mossenmark has managed to reach out to a general audience beyond the traditional music and culture audience.
Through this interest compositions and projects have grown — sound events such as OZONE II (concert for 24 ice cream vans), Phony (concert for cellphones), Song of a Siren (concert for boats), V8 (concert for American cars), Scooter Ballet (concert for snowmobiles) and WROOM (concert for 100 Harley-Davidson motorcycles).
In 1999 the Cultural Centre in Stockholm commissioned a concert for motorcycles. This resulted in "Wroom" — a concert for 100 Harley-Davidson motorcycles with roaring engines, led by a conductor.
During the opening of the International Festival for Performing Arts of Gothenburg, IRON – Concert for bodybuilders had its first performance. Twenty oiled bodybuilders in workwear and sunglasses walked down Kungsportsavenyn trailing 6-metre concrete steel rods, one in each hand, according to the composition.
Mossenmark also composes in classical forms, mostly chamber music and opera. The musical dramatic form has become a large part of the production, resulting in six musical dramatic pieces. The first opera was Mrs Björk's Destiny and Adventures (1993–94), based on the novel by Jonas Gardell, commissioned by Vadstena Academy.
Subsequent works: The Changeling (1998), The Fair Maiden's Mountain (2001), But Think Of Me Then! (2002), A Short Time Ago (2003), and Stjärneborg (2005, Swedish Radio P1/P2).
DOWNLOAD
ARTICLES
- GUJ 6-2018 — Konsten behöver kreativa konflikter PDF (Swedish)
- GUJ 2-2007 — Motormusik och motståndspedagogik PDF (Swedish)
PREVIOUS LECTURES
- University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece
- Inter.noise, New York City, USA
- Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey
- The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), Glasgow, Scotland
- ESMAE - Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espectáculo, Porto, Portugal
- Universität für musik und darstellende kunst wien, institut für elektroakustik, experimentell und angewandte musik, Wien, Austria
- Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania
- Syddansk Musikkonservatorium i Esbjerg, Esbjerg, Denmark
- Concercatorio Claudio Monteverdi, Bolzano, Italy
- Conservatorio di Musica di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
- Barents Spektakel, Kirkenes, Norway
- Accademia Cignaroli, Verona, Italy
- The Swedish Centre for Audio Migration, Västervik, Sweden
- Harstad International Festival, Harstad, Norway
- University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre, Stockholm, Sweden
- University College of Dance, Stockholm, Sweden
- Conservatorio di musica, Lisabon, Portugal
- African Music Educators Network, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
- Conservatorio di musica, Verona, Italy
- Radar Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Museum of contemporary art, Roskilde, Denmark
- Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Bergen, Norway
- The Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Chalmers university of technology and architecture, Göteborg, Sweden
- Valand School of Fine Arts, Göteborg, Sweden
- Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, Trondheim, Norway
- Bergen University College, Bergen, Norway
- Gotland's College of Fine Arts and Gotland School of Music Composition, Visby, Sweden
- University college of arts, crafts and design, Stockholm, Sweden
- Swedish Radio, Göteborg, Sweden
- Department of Musicolog, Uppsala, Sweden
- The Röhsska Museum of Design and Decorative Arts, Göteborg, Sweden
- Bergen Academy of architecture, Bergen, Norway