Students

Barnabas Vollmar holds a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main. Since 2026, he has been a Meisterschüler in Sound Art-Composition at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz.

He works at the intersection of sound, movement, and performance, creating kinetic installations, sound installations, performances, drawings, and sound design, including for theatre productions.

In his artistic practice, Vollmar explores the relationship between society and technology, with a particular focus on the interplay of complex systems, chance, control, humans, and machines. His focus lies not only on the finished work, but on the experimental process of its creation. Prototypes, errors, and iterative experiments are central elements of his artistic research.

His works take the form of open experimental arrangements in which material, sound, and chance interact on equal terms, revealing how technological and social dynamics manifest themselves through movement, space, and sound.

EXHIBITIONS / AWARDS

• 2026— Future Future, Kulturministerium
• 2025— 1st Prize, Open Call Albert Mangelsdorff 2025, with Diego Seipel Soubrier
• 2025— Elektronische Haustiere, Plurale Festival, Documenta Halle Kassel
• 2024— be_ing, Kollektiv May_Fly, saasfee*pavillon
• 2021— Stock:Noise, Stock.Noise+Voice, MMK – Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt

THEATRE / SOUND DESIGN

• 2025— TRIGER ME, Sound Design & Performance, Landungsbrücken Frankfurt
• 2024–2025— NACH UNS DIE ANGST, Sound Design & Live Sound Performance — Wagnis-Preis & Edith-Müller-Preis; Hessische Theatertage, Staatstheater Mainz, Theaterperipherie Frankfurt, Stadttheater Gießen

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barnabasvollmar/

Dayou Yu, born in 2002 in Jiaxing, China, is a composer, sound artist, and electronic musician.

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Music and Media from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Since 2026, he has been pursuing a Master’s degree in Sound Art-Composition at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Hochschule für Musik Mainz.

Yu received training in composition, violin, and piano, and has worked as a composer, arranger, sound designer, mixing engineer, beatboxer, and vocal percussionist in a cappella ensembles. His work spans sound art, film scoring, electronic music, and orchestral composition. Beyond sound-based practices, he is also skilled in complex origami and 3D modeling, which expand the possibilities for his interdisciplinary artistic work.

Drawing inspiration from sound art, electronic music, philosophy, Buddhist and Taoist thought, Yu investigates how sound shapes perception and imagination. His artistic practice is dedicated to transforming thought into compelling artistic works.

photo: Maryam Barzkar.

Fatemeh Barzkar, born in 1996 in Tehran, is a sound artist and piano teacher. She has a conceptual approach towards sound and silence and explores the function of imagination regarding sound and other sensory elements. She has a bachelor's degree in handicrafts and aims to bind her diverse experience in working with different materials and media with her ideas to create sound art.

She says "For me, art is an act of pointing—of directing attention. It can be as simple as a finger indicating a landscape, or as complex as referring to an abstract concept through language or other artistic media. My engagement with sound art developed through my interest in art and music, and through a range of artistic experiences that gradually made listening and sound central to my practice. I became interested in how sound can create a sense of wonder and awe, especially in relation to other senses, perception, and imagination. Recording environmental sounds alongside photography was my first attempt to give form to this experience and to share it. As I continue this path through my studies in Sound Art composition in Germany, as well as through traveling and recording sounds to build a personal sonic archive, I remain focused on exploring new sensory experiences centered on listening. My final project is about listening to the environment through earphones. I am working on a site specific album using noises-especially white noise-and recorded sounds that interact with environmental sounds."

Awards

• 2025 - Rotary Club Mainz-Churmeyntz - Cultural Recognition Award
  2026 - DAAD price of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Exhibitions

• Dec. 2024, Fill in the Blanks in the exhibition “Jack in the Black Box” at the Black Box of the HfM
• Feb. 2025, two works at OPEN-EXPO as part of the international sound art festival OPENING at the TUFA in Trier
• June 2025 Participation in the research project “Sound Art and Industrial Culture at the Sayner Hütte” with three works
• Oct 2025 Group Composition of Sound Collage Lab/Donaueschingen Musiktage
• June 2025 Culture Prize of the Rotary Club Mainz-Churmeyntz, world premiere of Hamhame
• Nov 2025, invitation to present Fill in the Blanks at Tehran Sound Festival, Berlin
• Jan. 2026 Invitation to participate in the Playtime:à suivre festival, HbK in Bern
  Feb. 2026 exhibition “Coiled Waves” at the Black Box of the HfM, installation: Homage to Khayyam
• June 2026 – invitiation to present the installation Homage to Khayyam at the festival next generation XI at ZKM, Karlsruhe

Composer-performer from Buenos Aires, Argentina

Favoring a simple approach towards material and form in composition. maintaining a considerable mobility regarding aesthetics and discursive positions. no intention of overlapping them.

Trained in composition, classical and electric guitar, and latin american contemporary aesthetics

From musical compositions to essays, songs to conceptual works, performing solo or within different musical communities in Argentina and Europe.

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