René Clemencic

Artist
René Clemencic
Attraction
Music for Hubert Aratym's pavilion
Born
1928 - 2022 Vienna, Austria

Founded the Clemencic Consort—an ensemble dedicated to interpreting early music on historical instruments.

He played music ranging from the Middle Ages and Baroque period to avant-garde compositions as a recorder soloist.

Conducted and played music on over 100 records.

Fairground view: Hubert Aratym, Pavilion with face-in-hole paintings. Luna Luna, Hamburg, Germany, 1987.

Fairground view: Hubert Aratym, Pavilion with face-in-hole paintings. Luna Luna, Hamburg, Germany, 1987.

René Clemencic was a composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, director, and founder of two ensembles for early music. Clemencic is well known for his performances on early woodwind instruments, particularly as a recorder soloist. He performed works ranging from music of the medieval period to avant-garde compositions and played over twenty different flutes and recorders in notable works such as Flauto Magico (1987).

Clemencic’s original compositions include oratorios in ancient languages such as Greek and Hebrew, reflecting his exploration of what he describes as the “symbolism of sound.”

Clemencic created an original composition for Hubert Aratym’s installation: a play on the classic carnival attraction which invites audiences to insert their faces into cut-outs of various characters.

In 1958, Clemencic founded the ensemble Musica Antiqua and ten years later, Clemencic Consort, both of which have made an array of repertories from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance available to a modern audience for the first time in concert. The Clemencic Consort, an ensemble of international instrumentalists and vocalists varying in composition and size, focuses on the production of Baroque operas.

For Luna Luna, Clemencic created an original composition for Hubert Aratym’s installation: a play on the classic carnival attraction which invites audiences to insert their faces into cut-outs of various characters.

Forgotten Fantasy

Now open at the shed, nyc

Thirty-seven years ago, Luna Luna landed in Hamburg, Germany: the world’s first art amusement park with rides, games, and attractions by visionaries like Basquiat, Haring, Lichtenstein and Hockney. By a twist of fate, the park’s treasures were soon sealed in 44 shipping containers and forgotten in Texas — until now.