Kraftwerk play ‘1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8’ live shows at MoMA NYC during first live retrospective

Please turn to your favorite flight price check website and start booking a trip to New York City: Kraftwerk will be performing eight nights in a row at the Museum of Modern Art during their newly announced first live retrospective. Titled 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, the shows run April 10th – 17th 2012.

MoMA‘s Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium want to present an “exploration of the sonic and visual experiments of Kraftwerk” with live shows from the group’s eight albums on each of the nights, performed in chronological order of their release: Autobahn (1974), Radio-Aktivität (1975), Trans Europa Express (1977), Die Mensch-Maschine (1978), Computerwelt (1981), Techno Pop (1986), The Mix (1991), and Tour de France (2003). On top of that, other original compositions will be modified to fit the exhibition format. Curated by MoMA’s PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 will give a broad insight into the Düsseldorf-hailing pioneers of synthesizer and machine music: ambient sounds, 3D video images (probably similar to the ones last seen in Munich), set design, and performance will be part of the retrospective.

“Kraftwerk is an influential force not only in music, but also in visual culture“, as Biesenbach states it in the press release. “Through their experimentation with how images and sound are shaped by the latest recording and visualization tools, they have continuously anticipated the impact of technology on everyday life, and have captured the human condition in an era of rapidly changing mobility and telecommunication. Today, they remain vital to contemporary practice through their intersection of popular culture, mass media, and artistic production. In Kraftwerk’s practice, all of the components – melodic music and ambient sound, elaborate stage sets, live performance and performance by robots, their trademark videos and logo-like still imagery, all conceived and realized by the artists themselves—coalesce as one work of art.”

In our most recent print issue, German sculptor and photographer Thomas Demand mentioned in his review of Kraftwerk 3D at Munich’s Lenbachhaus, that he “always mistrusted artists whose erratic shifts in direction become so predictable – perhaps with the exception of David Bowie, Marcel Broodthaers and Konstantin Grcic. True mastery comes from working with a given motif over years and years, if not decades. And Kraftwerk shows why that’s so important. In my opinion, their focus was an important factor in their first five albums becoming part of the canon of pop and electronic music.”

Ticket sales for ‘1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8’ starts on February 22nd, 12:00 with $25.00 each, limited to two tickets per person for the series. See you there down-the-line!

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Image: © Kraftwerk / Sprueth Magers, Berlin and London

Published February 16, 2012.