August 2017

Michael Mortilla is a composer and musician who for two decades has improvised scores to all manner of silent films for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among other organizations. (He has also worked with a pair of legendary choreographers: Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham.)

Sebastian Mez is a filmmaker, video- and soundartist. He studied at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, Germany specializing in film directing. His experimental film Clean Up was shown at more than 40 international film festivals and won several prizes. Ein Brief aus Deutschland, which takes a special approach to the subject of modern slavery and prostitution in Europe, won the international middle length competition at Visions du Réel in Nyon in 2011. Metamorphosen was his first feature length film, which premiered at the Berlinale 2013, followed by numerous festivals and awards worldwide. His experimental work Substanz was nominated for the Filmkunstförderpreis of the National Gallery in Berlin 2015. Sebastian lives and works in Berlin.

www.sebastianmez.com

Ignaz Schick is a Berlin based turntablist, composer, sound and visual artists & curator. He started as saxophonist in the fields of free jazz and avant rock under the mentorship of trumpeter Don Cherry and shortly after got interested in electronic and contemporary music. Early experiments with tape machines, record players and effect boxes led to his own practize with self-made instruments and devices.
After college he briefly studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and worked for several years as an assistant for the contemporary composer Josef Anton Riedl.
Since 1995 he has been living in Berlin where he became a prolific figure in the cities experimental music scene working with numerous musicians worldwide including many different musical styles (noise, industrial, electro-acousitc music, improvisation, jazz, contemporary, ambient, electronica). He has toured worldwide, released a vast discography on numerous labels, builds sound installations and collaborated with such icons as  Mwata Bowden, Don Cherry, Sven-Ake Johansson, Paul Lovens, Toshi Nakamura, Charlemagne Palestine, Andrea Parkins, Keith Rowe, Matthias Spahlinger or Martin Tetreault.
Since 2012 he has been focussing on conceptual compositions and experimental radio pieces and has developed his own graphic and verbal notations language for creative musicians. Besides being a member of several ensemble projects he also leads the 9-piece
Circuit Training ensemble in Berlin.

www.soundcloud.com/ignazschick

Hamburg-based Annette Streyl is a visual artist focused on sculpture in a traditional as well as in a contemporary sense.
She studied at Muthesiushochschule Kiel and Hochschule für Bildende Künste with Franz Erhard Walther.
Her textile works show representative architecture whereas her stone works have the allure of medieval and renaissance European sculpture.
Streyl's work is part of private and museum collections world wide.

www.streyl.net/

Andreas Schäfer studied German literature and theology in Frankfurt/Main and Berlin. Since the mid-nineties he has been working as a theatre critic and reported on cultural affairs  first for Berliner Zeitung  and then for Der Tagesspiegel until 2010, when he became a freelance writer.

He published his novel  Auf dem Weg nach Messara (En Route to Messara, Alexander Fest Verlag, 2002), which received the Bremen Most Promising Writer Award. His novel Wir vier (The Four of Us, Dumont Verlag, 2010) was long listed for the German Book Award and received the Anna Seghers Prize. His latest novel  Gesichter (Faces, Dumont Verlag, 2013), was voted on to the bestseller list of Southwest German Radio.  

Schäfer writes essays and commentaries for Die Zeit and magazines such as Weltkunst and Architektur und Wohnung and works on developing print materials for foundations. He also writes radio features on topics such as the magic of a night in Athens, the power of the empty theatre space, or the swimming pool as a venue for literature.   

At Villa Aurora Andreas Schäfer is working on a novel about an old famous house and its changing inhabitants over a century.

Genoël von Lilienstern studied composition in Bremen and Berlin  and Sonology in The Hague. Von Lilienstern received numerous scholarships including from UdK Berlin Graduate School, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris and Tokyo Wondersite. He has worked with leading international ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and SWR Orchestra. He also created installative works for flight drones and robots. 
During his stay in Villa Aurora he will be working on a project entitled "Tongva Song" investigating  the present days situation of the Tongva Gabrieleños (the native inhabitants of the Los Angeles basin), the efforts of "language revitalization" and Southern Californian Native American music traditions. The outcome of this survey will potentially be a musical composition or cooperation.

www.soundcloud.com/genoel