MELENCOLIA APP was developed as a prologue and epilogue for the premiere of the musical theater show MELENCOLIA by Muntendorf/Lobeck, a work commissioned by the Bregenz Festival and Ensemble Modern. But it also works at any time and anywhere: If you have the app installed on your smartphone or tablet and use it to scan the various MELENCOLIA QR codes, you can bring different AR creatures to life. If several people use the app in one place at the same time, the different sound tracks complement each other via the individual speakers to form a cell phone choir of up to six voices. MELENCOLIA QR codes can be found, for example, at www.melencolia.digital.

Melancholy has received contradictory interpretations across centuries and cultures; it was considered a physical illness as well as a moment of contemplation, a possibility of overcoming earthly suffering and a sister of genius. Albrecht Dürer's enigmatic creatures in his equally enigmatic engraving "Melencolia I" have become a symbol of these contradictions and the insoluble in the midst of human longing for redemption.
The musical theater show MELENCOLIA, based on Dürer's world, establishes a melancholic playground that seems to have been lost in our overstimulated, tired societies and the new, colonized digital worlds. With the MELENCOLIA APP you have the chance to bring Dürer's essence into the now with the help of your smartphone or tablet and become part of a temporary melancholic community yourself.

Conception: Muntendorf/Lobeck
Composition: Brigitta Muntendorf
Graphics, animation and design: Veronika Simmering
Programming: vobe.digital
Production: ECHO Factory 2022

Funded by: The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media