Klaus Damm

The artist, born near Cologne in 1949, lived in Essen. You will find a biographical overview here.

Artistic Development

Klaus Damm began his artistry in 1971 mainly with artistic and lyrical works while he was studying musicology and German studies in Bonn and subsequently in Bochum. He further developed his artistic vision and craft at the Ruhr University Arts Centre under the tuition of the informal painter Hans-Jürgen Schlieker.

Klaus Damm was trained as a composer at the Folkwang University of Music, Drama, and Dance in Essen (today: Folkwang University of the Arts). He started there as a student under the tuition of Nicolaus A. Huber in 1975. In 1978, he became the first ever composer to win the Folkwang award. He then went on to specialize in algorithmic composition and electronic music under Dirk Reith. His compositions were produced at the WDR (West German Broadcasting) and performed at New Music centers. He became an enthusiastic, committed participant on the board of the Essen Composers’ Association and an active member of the "Cologne Society for New Music". His position was documented by articles in specialist media and lectures.

After graduation, Klaus Damm initially focused on projects in the field of computer music within the scope of a research and development project backed by the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology. He developed - also in collaboration with Dirk Reith - languages for algorithmic composition and electronic sound synthesis.

Developments beyond the "scene"

After 1985, Klaus Damm largely moved back from the avant-garde scene. For a long time, the tendencies of the contemporary art and music market appeared too far away from his own aesthetic and artistic visions.

Between 1986 and 1992 he was head of the Euskirchen music school, near Bonn. During this time, he paved the way for two of his composition students to achieve national and international recognition.

In 1989, he took part in the Cologne performance of choreographer James Saunders’ Dance Project 23, which was preceded by six weeks of intensive interdisciplinary work with Saunders and his team. This newly gained artistic freedom prompted the "Septembermonde" poetic graphics with their associated compositions and a dance interpretation. In 1992, he integrated his own texts and compositions from the seventies into his book "Domani, ein Nachlass".

In a solo exhibition at the “Luisa Hausen” gallery (Euskirchen) in 1993, Klaus Damm presented for the first time his graphics realized on the computer – with archaically abstracted landscape compositings. He developed his own composition program for his solo music performance during the private viewing. The works of that time were also presented for the Bonn Art Award and later, in a revised version, at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2004.

ArtOfVision – Authentic Corporate Communication

Art-Of-Vision

Whereas introspection had dominated his art until then, from 1995, through the founding of his “Agency for Communication and Design”, later under the name “ArtOfVision”, he dedicated himself to humanistic and social challenges and assignments: corporate identity processes, mission statement development, authentic communication, patient-centered psychiatric communication.

Before this, he trained as a certified public relations consultant, completing the training with the PR concept “Folkwang – Die Integration der Künste”. Commissioned by the Folkwang-Hochschule in Essen, Klaus Damm used this as a basis in 1995 to formulate the strategic part of the university’s development plan, and he designed and provided text for the university’s image brochure.

Time and again Klaus Damm introduced creative approaches from his visual work into corporate design processes. In 2000, Klaus Damm presented large-format image montages in a joint exhibition with sculptor Peter Schröder in Heiligenhafen – precursors of his Visiographies.

“visible music” – a new beginning

In 2003 Klaus Damm also resumed his composition work and from 2007 on found an independent, condensed language of sound and images. Unaffected by current cultural market trends, he developed his interdisciplinary concept of "visible music".

In 2010, after the years of retreat, Klaus Damm reintroduced himself to the wider public as a composer and artist with the premiere of his sound and image composition “Im Lied des Phoenix” at Frankfurt Cathedral (Kaiserdom) and an accompanying solo exhibition.

From 2013 on Klaus Damm was represented with solo and group exhibitions and events, mainly in the Rhine/Ruhr region.

The fruitful collaboration with personalities from other disciplines led Klaus Damm to new paths: for the choreographer Andrea Simons he composed the stage music for the dance theatre project “Minotaurus”, which led to the lyrical film essay “Am Anfang hell, am Ende dunkel”, winner of several international awards.

For “InnenRaumReisen” by the internationally renowned therapist Joël Weser, Klaus Damm composed individual musical condensations.

With the trauma therapist Sybille Pfeifer, Klaus Damm developed the therapy concept “tracing - Spuren Deines Seins”, carried by the music he composed for it, as well as supplementary theme CDs on personal development. The spiritual understanding of being, soul and psyche – beyond dogmas and rituals or institutionalisation – shaped works that may accompany people on the path to their unfolding and to the recognition of their uniqueness.

At private views of the Cologne Galerie Display, Klaus Damm introduced the works and concepts of exhibiting artists.

From 2017 on, the encounter with pre-Christian and non-European cultures at the Metropolitan Museum in New York led to his own artistic engagement with their worlds of energy and style.

Inspired by performances of New Music at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Klaus Damm worked from 2018 on transferring music initially composed electronically to instrumental ensembles.