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BIOGRAPHY (resume)
Latvian-born a sound performance artist, a voice teacher, composer and archives manager Ilmārs Šterns (b. 1989, Riga). He graduated BFA/MFA from the Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy in 2014 and MFA from the Art Academy of Latvia in 2018, his latest MFA from Bern University of the Arts in 2020.
He established his own concept of creative process through different perceptions. His work focuses on the relation between man, environment, and technologies. He is interested in the physical possibilities of materials, their technical manipulation and interaction.
"I am interested in the diversity of my voice and body gestures, interacting within objects of everyday life using non-verbal communication in my artistic practice. My work includes acoustic, tactile and visual perception. `Sound Performances` combines my previous experience with jazz singing, stage design and studies in contemporary arts practice. By discovering how to understand more deeply the things around us and also how they affect us, I create relationships within the environment by breaking through all boundaries and hierarchies. These mysterious relationships are transformed by stimuli and reactions into something that did not exist before. What appeals to me as a composer in this process is that I am constantly confronted with a chaos of noises and unusual activities where I have to find an artistic framework to make my statement. My sound performances appear as serious work and research on human existential questions, always complemented by a surrealistic and hilarious humour."
Since performances involve movement, sound and visual image, a detailed and creative documentation process is required, which is implemented either in concepts or graphic scores. The author emphasizes his notation as the most important thing in his work to create a structure of performances. He developed a title indexation that describes everything that he creates in one standardised model.
In 2020 he was nominated for Art Price in excellence of Master Diploma Work 2020 by Association Ober-Gerwern, Bern, Switzerland. In 2016 he win the first place in the Baltic Acoustic festival 'Silver Gull`. In the 2014 he receive "The appreciation acknowledgment for an investment in teaching the new generation of jazz musicians in Latvia" from Latvian National Center of Culture.
Šterns is a member of PANCH (Performance Art Network CH) and Latvian art society "Sidegunde". He is an educator giving lessons and leading lecture-performance-workshops.