Bernhard Gál
Owed to his multifaceted and interdisciplinary artistic approach, the Austrian artist, composer and musicologist Bernhard Gál (also known by his accent-less surname, Gal) is equally at home within the domains of contemporary music, installation art and media art. As of now, Gal has created around 50 sound installations and intermedia art projects combining sound, light, objects, spatial concepts and video projections into intense and often site-specific, multidimensional art works. He also composes music for acoustic instruments and electro-acoustic music, as well as performing live as a (laptop) musician.
Born in Vienna, Austria in 1971, Gal began to nurture his interest in music and (sound) art around 1985. After studies at Vienna’s University of Music (Sound Engineering) and the University of Vienna (Musicology), and a year-long residency in New York City in 1997–98, he has focused on his compositional and artistic activities. He runs the record label Gromoga Records and is director of the Austrian art organization SP CE. Together with Belma Beslic-Gál, he curates the Viennese Festival Shut Up and Listen!. Between 2006 and 2007, he taught sound art at the University of Arts in Berlin. Currently, Gál holds a research position at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg, in conjunction with the interdisciplinary doctoral college ‘Art and the Public’.
