Setting #1—#28 

Series of work of mediated performance with a found stage, a various number of performers playing sound-making devices as directed by an instruction score, and a camera recording them

Materials used to date:
Personal phones & tablets, electric metronomes, paper & plastic bags, megaphones, raspberry pi computers.

Audio used to date:
Rhythm recordings made by performers, Gameboy 8-bit soundwave under creative commons licence from freesound.org, recordings of megaphone feedback sounds, recordings of an Indian temple bell played by performers, recordings of musical instruments played by performers, metronomes, literal megaphone feedback, megaphone on/off switch sounds, sawtooth waves from free oscillator apps, and PureData patches run mobile via MobMuPlat

“Setting” is a series of living installation pieces that solely exist as mediated documents, with which Marcel Zaes aims to conceptualize an artistic practice transgressing the boundaries of visual arts, sound art, music composition, performance and installation art. The “Setting” series blends the ephemeral character of sound art and the three-dimensionality and site-specificity of installation art with the affordances of the medium that captures them. The resulting oscillation between the performative, as embodied by the performers employed, and between the installative, represented by the various objects placed in the scene, that is, in the screen, is what constitutes the “living,” and the “installation” element respectively, even though with the mediality that is at play, the line between the living and the installative are blurred. In merging objects and human performers into plain mediated sound-producing elements, both components are transformed into living sculptures; hierarchically equivalent constituents of a single, living space, taking place on a remediated outdoor lot, the “found stage,” and depicted on a screen.

SETTING #28, SCHLEHDORF, GERMANY 2021


SETTING #27, BOSTON 2020
Pandemic version with masks and in social distance, outdoors
With eight performers, performed on an undisclosed parking lot

SETTING #26, CHICAGO 2020
With Alejandro T. Acierto, Darlene Castro, Oliver Hickman, Stephan Moore, Olivia Valentine, Cathy van Eck, and Viola Yip

SETTING #25, DENVER COLORADO 2019
With Marcel Zaes

SETTING #24, GREATER NOIDA 2019
With: Shruti Aggarwal, Jatin Arora, Prithvi Arunachalam, Pranav Asrani, Anushree Awathi, Anushikha Chaudhuri, Sumeet Dash, Khushi Dhasmana, Aastha Garg, Khushi Garg, Shubhangi Goel, Ananya Gurram Reddy, Akanksha Kaul, Janki Kaushal, Harshit Khandelwal, Niharika Maiti, Apoorv Mathur, Aayushi Mer, Pihu Mishra, Arya Misra, Divyangana Mittal, Ragamalika Muraleedharan, Venkata Pillai, Hrishika Rastogi, Anushka Saini, G. Savitha, Mrityunjay Singh, Rithvik Somalraju;
curated and directed by Meghna Bhardwaj


SETTING #23, CABARET VOLTAIRE ZÜRICH 2019
With Philip Bartels, Simone Keller, Miranda Moss, Moritz Müllenbach and Lukas Rickli;
curated by Philipp Cron; concept by Annelie J. Graf & Marcel Zaes

SETTING #22, CABARET VOLTAIRE ZÜRICH 2019
With Philip Bartels, Simone Keller, Miranda Moss, Moritz Müllenbach and Lukas Rickli;
curated by Philipp Cron; concept by Annelie J. Graf & Marcel Zaes


SETTING #21, CABARET VOLTAIRE ZÜRICH 2019
With Philip Bartels, Simone Keller, Miranda Moss, Moritz Müllenbach and Lukas Rickli;
curated by Philipp Cron; concept by Annelie J. Graf & Marcel Zaes

SETTING #20, CONEY ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli

SETTING #19, CONEY ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli

SETTING #18, CONEY ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli

SETTING #17, CONEY ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli

SETTING #16, SABIN POINT, RHODE ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli

SETTING #15, SABIN POINT, RHODE ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli

SETTING #14, BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli

SETTING #13, BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND 2019
With Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, and Lukas Rickli

SETTING #12, PROVIDENCE 2018
With Mirjam Paninski

SETTING #11, NEW DELHI 2018
with Meghna Bhardwaj, Laura Gáti, Marcel Zaes

SETTING #10, NEW DELHI 2018
with Meghna Bhardwaj, Laura Gáti, Marcel Zaes

SETTING #9, NEW DELHI 2018
with Meghna Bhardwaj, Laura Gáti, Marcel Zaes

SETTING #8, NEW DELHI 2018
with Meghna Bhardwaj, Laura Gáti, Marcel Zaes

SETTING #7, MANIPUR 2018
With Achui Worchui, Abow, Bonny, Chaoba Thiyam, Jimbo, Meghna Bhardwaj, Laura Gáti, Premananda Nongthombam, Pa Taiwan, Sunil Singh, Ton Arambam, Tom Maisnam and Meena Longjam

SETTING #6, TILLINGHAST FARM 2017
With: Kourtnie Aileru, Jared Akerstrom, Bobby Anspach, Xiaopeng Qi, Evan Voelbel, Kelsey Wakefield, Marcel Zaes 

SETTING #5, PROVIDENCE 2017
with Luis Achondo, Melody Chapin, Benjamin Silverman, Steven Velazquez 

SETTING #4, RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN 2017
With Laura Cetilia, Ashley Frith, Emmy Holmes-Hicks and Kate Outterbridge

SETTING #3, BERN 2016
With Franz Aeschbacher, Virginia Arancio, Philip Bartels, Madeleine Bärtschi, Marina Bolzli, Vanessa Gageos, Christian Kobi, Karin Jampen, Simone Keller, Milena Krstic, Cyrill Lim, Rebekka Meyer, Sophie Muralt, Lukas Poncet, Christoph Rihs, Franziska Ruoss, Julie Sas, Pascal Schärli, Lara Stanic, Cathy van Eck, Beat Vollenwyder and Kathrin Zurschmitten 

SETTING #2, CLERMONT NEW YORK 2015
With Dana Shimkoski, Antonio Irizarry, Daisy Rosato, Ethan Rogers, Reeves Morris-Stan, Kedian Keohan, Abby Adler 

SETTING #1, CLERMONT NEW YORK 2015
With Marcel Zaes