With “Treasures and Adventures, Musik für eine Ausstellung” Manuel Stagars (*1974 in Zurich, lives and works in LA) has composed the soundtrack for a selection of eleven works of the Glarner Kunstverein. Through this soundtrack, the paintings in the exhibition space become film stills of an imaginary plot determined by the music.
The paintings by Stäbli, Castan, Steffan – mainly landscape paintings from the second half of the 19th century – served Manuel Stagars as the starting point and inspiration for his composition.
In the exhibition, the pictures are film stills of an imaginary plot supported by music, the protagonists of which are a man, a woman, a boy and a fisherman (for example “Vieux Pêcheur” by Felix Vallotton). While a linear course of the story is not predetermined, the music immerses the art-historically heterogeneous composition of the paintings in an emotionally charged atmosphere and suggests a narrative connection between the works, which would otherwise hardly be related to each other. That the combination of music and images is not a contemporary invention is confirmed by the historical dioramas which, before the birth of film (1895), offered a multimedia spectacle through the use of light and music.
“Treasures and Adventures, Musik für ein Ausstellung” is a project of the musician Manuel Stagars and the art historian Christoph Lichtin. In addition to the CD, the publication contains a picture sheet with the paintings of the exhibition.