Charlotte Hug, composer, musician and visual artist, lives in Zurich and travells extensively. She graduated in Visual Arts and Music, from London, Bern, Zurich & Berlin, and has received several awards, including "artist in residence" in London, Paris, Cork, Berlin and now in Cobh for the month of June.
Charlotte is well known for her spatial scores and performances in unusual places around the world. Charlotte tries to maximize amplification of playing techniques through the use of these alternative spaces. She has, among others, developed the "softbow" and specializes in mixing the sounds of viola and voice.
In addition to exhibitions, she performs as a soloist playing her own compositions at important international festivals in Europe, USA and Canada. ( for more inforamtion visit http://www.charlottehug.ch). Sarah Iremonger, Artist in Residence Co-ordinator took a few moments out to find-out more about Charlotte and her aspirations for her residency.
Sarah - Can you tell us a bit about what you've been working on recently and your plans during your residency at Sirius?
Charlotte - I was in the area during Cork Capital of Culture 2005, at that time I did an installation and performance for the Soundworks Festival as part of Arttrail. The high and low tide near the Dockyard in Rusbrookewere was inspiring for me. At low tide I was standing on the slipway... it made me think of "anderwelten" (the Celtic discription for otherworlds).
At that time I was looking for special places allover Europe which were under the earth, or under the water, or in between. Since then I played in the Rhone Glacier in Switzerland and the house of detention, a prison from the 16th century which was a air raid shelter during the second worldwar in London. I also performed in a half destroyed bunker in Berlin and in the subterranean hot springs in the cellar of a former luxury hotel of the 18th century in Switzerland.
I am currently working with Swiss TV to make a documentary film about this project, "Anderwelten". The filmmaker Alberto Venzago and his cameraman will come at the end of my residency to the Sirius Art Centre and film my work here in Ireland. My focus this year is "Anderwelten" and my time at Sirius provides me with an opportunity to continue my work on this project. I have plans for a future exhibition, including an installation and a performance which will be shown at the Kunstkeller Bern in Switzerland and at the Swissnex in San Francisco this autum.Currently I am the soloist (viola & voice) in the piece "Oedipus on Kolonos" from Sophokles /director Jossi Wieler, where I will play the psyche of Oedipus at the Münchner Kammerspiele.
