Ernst Lima

Ernst Lima is a trans-media artist, composer, and sound designer based in Vienna, Austria. In liminal and often mantric installations, Ernst Lima expands the boundaries of cross-worldly and inter-medial existence. Utilizing multi-instrumental sounds to explore the transition of bodies and their physical and mental reactions to technological self-extension, Lima’s presentations create symbiotic relationships between physical and virtual corporeality. These works span genres such as sound art, installation, live concerts, and visual media, highlighting the physical, reactionary components in her creations. Fluid yet deeply rooted, Ernst Lima’s music defies singular genres and identities. It wades through influences ranging from experimental electronic and electro-acoustics to film scoring, often anchored by raw guitar loops that form the foundation of her songwriting process. In October 2024, Ernst Lima released the EP My Soul Is My Terror with Super Ego Records. Each song delves into the fragmented duality within us, highlighting the emotional contradictions between our digital and physical selves. From hyperconnectivity to isolation, and from the public eye to the private soul, this EP explores the tension between our online and offline worlds, wandering through score-like textures, storytelling, ethereal guitar parts, and deconstructed electronic fragments. Ernst Lima’s work has been featured in national and international exhibitions such as Sotheby’s Artist Quarterly Vienna, Parallel Vienna, Friche la Belle de Mai Marseille, and Unseen Amsterdam. She has also performed live at Belvedere 21, Popfest Vienna, and Ars Electronica Linz. She has designed soundscapes for companies such as Meta, in collaboration with Vienna Contempo­rary, and for events like Burning Man Nevada and the Biennale de Lyon. Lima has collaborated with artists including Christiane Peschek, Robert Gabris, and Sebastiano Sing, presenting these works at venues such as the Impulstanz Festival, Künstlerhaus Vienna, and Kunstmuseum Celle. In 2021, Ernst Lima received the START grant for media art from the Federal Chancellery of Austria as well as the Bildrecht Young Artist Award.

Where do the boundaries between the analog and the digital, the physical and the virtual lie? Are such boundaries still relevant? Ernst Lima addresses these questions in transmedial installations and musical works which explore the interactions between technology, perception, and identity. The 2024 EP My Soul Is My Terror deconstructs sound into dense, fragmented textures. Raw guitar loops and experimental electronics merge into a floating, contemplative engagement with the speed of the now.