The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces two large-scale audiovisual installations by Chicago-based, Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces two large-scale audiovisual installations by Chicago-based, Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger as part of the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts*. HIVE is open through December 31, 2013, at Wood Street Galleries. Granular Synthesis, created together with Austrian artist Ulf Langheinrich, is open through October 20, 2013, at SPACE.

HIVE is a 3D-animated audiovisual installation in which visitors encounter swirling amorphous human figures appearing as a mass, or hive, rather than as individual beings. The choreographed, projected motion, light, and sound patterns create an immersive audiovisual landscape without a beginning or an end. The computer-generated HIVE takes on a life of its own, creating an artificial organism in perpetual motion.

Between 1991 and 2003 Hentschläger worked together with Langheinrich as the audiovisual media artistic duo Granular Synthesis. The artists fused sight and sound into one medium, manipulating technology to challenge human perception and consciousness. This Granular Synthesis presentation features Model 5 and POL. Model 5 projects multiple portraits of Japanese performance artist Akemi Takeya. Mechanical rhythms manipulate the images, creating a sense of schizophrenia, seemingly pulling the body apart and dissolving it into electronic space. POL presents audiences with an astounding overload of disorienting stimuli, relying on high intensity light, video, and sound projections.

Kurt Hentschläger began exhibiting his work in 1983. He creates audiovisual installations and performances, featuring film, video, animation, and sound. The immersive nature of his work investigates human perception and the impact of new technologies on consciousness. Granular Synthesis has exhibited internationally, at such venues as the Venice Biennal; National Art Museum of China; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Rotterdam Film Festival; Museum for Contemporary Arts, Taipei; Eyebeam, New York; PS1 New York; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul Korea. Hentschläger is currently a full-time visiting artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ulf Langheinrich began working with Hentschläger in 1991 to realize audiovisual installations as the audiovisual media artistic duo Granular Synthesis. Since 2003 he has developed solo projects, including installation, film, and performance work.

*Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts (PIFOF), a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, is a city-wide, 16-day performing and visual arts festival (Sept. 27-Oct. 26, 2013) featuring exclusive U.S. and world premieres by highly-acclaimed international artists and contemporary performing arts companies. Festival events are presented in association with other Pittsburgh cultural organizations and offer intimate experiences for audiences at various traditional and non-traditional performance venues within the downtown Cultural District and throughout the city.

About Wood Street Galleries

Wood Street Galleries is located at 601 Wood Street. Hours: Wed. & Thur. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. The gallery is free and open to the public. Wood Street Galleries is a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Support for Wood Street Galleries has been provided by the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Additional support provided by the Port Authority of Allegheny County. For more information about all gallery exhibitions featured in the Cultural District, please visit www.TrustArts.org.

About SPACE

SPACE is located at 812 Liberty Avenue. Gallery Hours: Wed & Thurs: 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Fri & Sat: 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. The gallery is free and open to the public. SPACE is a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. For more information about all gallery exhibitions featured in the Cultural District, please visit www.TrustArts.org.

About The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has overseen one of Pittsburgh's most historic transformations: turning a seedy red-light district into a magnet destination for arts lovers, residents, visitors, and business owners. Founded in 1984, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is the cultural and economic revitalization of a 14-block arts and entertainment/residential neighborhood called the Cultural District. The District is one of the country's largest land masses "curated" by a single nonprofit arts organization. A major catalytic force in the city, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a unique model of how public-private partnerships can reinvent a city with authenticity, innovation and creativity. Using the arts as an economic catalyst, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has holistically created a world-renowned Cultural District that is revitalizing the city, improving the regional economy and enhancing Pittsburgh's quality of life. Thanks to the support of foundations, corporations, government agencies and thousands of private citizens, the Trust stands as a national model of urban redevelopment through the arts.