CV | David Helbich

portrait for and by D Museum, Seoul, 2020

CV David Helbich (pdf, 2023)

Portfolio David Helbich (pdf, 2024)

Bio

David Helbich (1973; Berlin) has lived and worked in Brussels, Belgium, since 2002. He studied composition and philosophy in Amsterdam and Freiburg. He works as a sound and performance artist, as a visual and conceptual artist, as well as a conceptual photographer, composer, curator and teacher. He has created experimental works for the stage, for print and online media and for public space.

His work moves between representational and interactive works, closed pieces and open interventions, between conceptual gestures and actions. His concepts often appear in print, for example in artist books, illustrated scores and photo books, as well as in live performances and concerts, sound interventions, audio guides and on social media.

Many of his works and performances thematise concrete physical and social experiences. Here he tries to understand the audience as active individuals and seeks to expand contextually limited spaces. A recurring technique is that of self-performance, whereby the audience takes on the roles of both performer and addressee.

In addition to numerous lectures, workshops and performances, Helbich's work has been exhibited and presented internationally, including at the Queens Museum (NYC), D Museum (Daelim Museum, Seoul), Kanal - Centre Pompidou (Brussels), Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Oude Kerk (Amsterdam), Philharmonie Luxembourg, UnionDocs (New York) and Café OTO (London).

He has been commissioned by festivals such as Rainy Days festival in Philharmonie Luxembourg, Still Walking Festival in Birmingham, Festival van Vlaanderen in Kortrijk, Spor Festival in Aarhus, Skanu Meg Festival in Riga, Borealis and Lydgalleriet in Bergen, Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels,...

David Helbich received the Stuttgart Composition Prize "ad libitum" in 2011 for his piano book "Für aufrichtiges Klavier".

In 2013, he released the album "Outcuts" on the experimental label Surfacenoise. The record, based on field recordings and hard cuts, was included in the British Library.
In 2023, he released the album “Summer Hits” on the online-label for experimental techno “New York Haunted”, based on patches with his analog-modular synthesiser system.

His notated instrumental compositions have been performed by ensembles and soloists such as Ensemble Modern, Ictus Ensemble, Scanntet, Plus-Minus Ensemble, Maulwerker, Tom Pauwels and Kobe Van Cauwenberghe.

Helbich is the author of the bestsellers "Belgian solutions - Volume 1”, "- Volume 2" and “-Volume 3”, published by Luster, Antwerp, 2015, 2016 & 2022 and MER Paper Kunsthalle, Ghent, 2013. The first publication received particularly high media attention. Both photo-books were included in the first national photo-book overview exhibition "Photobook Belge" and catalogue (FOMU & Hannibal, Antwerp) in 2019, together with the 250 most important Belgian photo-books since 1854.

Helbich's outstanding grants in his career include the three-year grant 2016-2019 from the Flemish Community ('Flanders. State of the arts.') for his artistic development, as well as the six-month grant and residency at Residency Unlimited (RU) in New York City awarded by the same institution in 2015.  In 2012, he was awarded a one-year grant by the Flemish Community Commission of the Brussels Province (VGC) for the professionalisation of his artistic work in social media.

Helbich's curatorial and editorial projects include a.o. the online platform "1000 Scores. Pieces for Here, Now & Later" since 2020, the 6-month management of the residency and event venue "HOTELbich" in Brussels, 2008, the now 14-year curation of the growing photo collection "Belgian solutions" and the (postponed) exhibition "extended musicality, expanded composition" (working title) in the art space Rozenstraat Amsterdam with Martijn Tellinga and Sjoerd Klossterhuis.

In addition to his regular invitation as a composition and performance tutor at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music (IMD) since 2014, Helbich regularly teaches at art academies and universities in Europe and the USA.

As an electronic musician and composer, Helbich currently focuses on an analogue synthesizer system (bugbrand) and has production and improvisation collaborations with Boris Baltschun, Travis Just, Markus von Platen, Hannes Seidl and Anne van de Star. He composes soundtracks and sound design for the video works of Korean visual artist InYoung Yeo.

Helbich worked as a performer with various choreographers, such as Heike Langsdorf (DE/BE) and Mette Edvardsen (NO), with whom he toured Europe for 10 years.

dates of performances and exhibitions

interview by Guy Gypens in dutch (Kanal-Centre Pompidou, 2020)

interview by Guy Gypens in french (Kanal-Centre Pompidou, 2020)
interview with Harold Schellinx about some of my concepts (2013)

For the portraits, please contact me or the photographers directly, if you would like to use any of these pictures. davidhelbich(at)gmail.com