Editoriale - La Biennale di Venezia

# 0 / 2015 IL CORPO E LA PERFORMANCE
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Editoriale di Paolo Baratta
Il corpo e la performance
L'idea del corpo
Merce Cunningham, Steve Paxton,
Julian Beck, Meredith Monk e Simone Forti
dall'Archivio della Biennale 1960/1976
(Catalogo sfogliabile della mostra)
Appunti di Virgilio Sieni
Steve Paxton
Golden Lion Biennale Danza 2014
Keywords from a conversation with Stefano Tomassini
June 12th, 2014
Performance Record
Roselee Goldberg, Bice Curiger
and Jacqueline Burckhardt in conversation with Nikki Columbus
Cronache dall'Archivio Storico
· Merce Cunningham alla Biennale di Venezia: 1960 - 1972 - 1995
· Almanacco della Biennale: 1960 - 1972 - 1995
Trust on the Biennale
Editoriale
Entretien avec Paolo Baratta par Estelle Bories
Steve Reich
Golden Lion Biennale Musica 2014
A conversation with Oreste Bossini
September 21st, 2014
di Paolo Baratta
Con il termine editoriale di solito si intende uno scritto
tal modo diamo conto dell'oggi, alla luce di rapporti
formulare giudizi sull'arte (anche giudizi estetici) o
nel quale si delineano le finalità, le intenzioni e il ruolo
e relazioni diverse. In tal modo i fatti, gli avvenimenti
grazie ai quali, quanto meno, affinare la propria capacità
che si intende dare a una pubblicazione e definirne i
e i personaggi qui raccolti rappresentano ciascuno
di osservazione e di dialogo con l'arte.
contorni. Mi limiterò invece a delineare le premesse
un possibile punto di riferimento per indagare reti e
Da qualche tempo l’arte contemporanea, in tutti i
che hanno suggerito e che giustificano questa iniziativa,
costellazioni di rapporti anche con artisti o mondi qui
settori, ripropone il problema di un più consapevole
la quale troverà nel tempo le sue vie e le connotazioni
non rappresentati. E si sa che il contemporaneo ormai
dialogo tra l'osservatore (l'ascoltatore) e l'opera, dialogo
più opportune. " On s'engage et puis on voit". Diciamo
ha già la sua storia, che sollecita interessi e aiuta a porre
che non è più sollecitato da scelte partigiane, di scuola
semplicemente che la Biennale riconosce che essa stessa
in prospettiva il presente e il futuro. Infine, nel corso
o di movimento, e non è agevolato da una geografia
può essere fonte di un'attività editoriale, in aggiunta
dell'anno accadono in Biennale incontri con personalità
degli artisti che sfugge a una lettura anche aggiornata
a quella specifica già sviluppata nei cataloghi e nei
delle varie arti che lasciano il segno della loro parola.
per aree e per confini, ma che deve fare i conti con le
contenuti che arricchiscono il suo sito.
Da tutte queste premesse possono nascere, con uno
scelte di ciascuno. E va ripetuto ancora una volta che
E ciò per molte ragioni: innanzitutto la sua lunga
sforzo editoriale aggiunto, frutti importanti per il
questo dialogo non è certamente reso più facile da
storia, il fatto di essere da un lunghissimo tempo luogo
pubblico che ci segue con le sue visite e con il quale
disorientanti successi di mercato, che possono essere
dell'incontro e del dialogo su scala mondiale in vari
il dialogo può proseguire, rendendolo partecipe di
fonte di conformismo, né dalla ridondanza dei suoni,
campi artistici, il fatto che possiede un archivio oggi
queste diverse ulteriori opportunità di conoscenza e di
delle immagini e delle informazioni che occupano il
risistemato che offre la nostra storia come fonte di
riflessione critica.
quotidiano; per cui cercare l'arte e conoscere il potenziale
ispirazione. Si aggiunga la constatazione che i curatori
Il riferimento all'archivio non nasce solo da un
dell'architettura, comporta oggi un rinnovato spirito
delle varie arti sempre più sembrano interessati a
rinnovato interesse di storici di professione, ma di
di esplorazione, una volontà, un desiderio. Anche con
evocare episodi e figure di questo passato, con iniziative
quanti si interrogano sul futuro e sulla complessità
l'ausilio di questa e-review vorremmo contribuire ad
specifiche, o richiamandoli nelle mostre principali. In
del contemporaneo, estraendo i criteri in base ai quali
accendere e "riattizzare"questo desiderio.
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IL CORPO E LA PERFORMANCE # 0 / 2015
L’idea del corpo
Merce Cunningham, Steve Paxton, Julian Beck, Meredith Monk e Simone Forti
dall ’Archivio della Biennale 1960 - 1976
L’idea
del corpo
po
L’idea del cor
ingham,
,
Merce Cunn
n, Julian Beck
Steve Paxto
e Simone Forti
Meredith Monk
ale
io della Bienn
dall’Archiv
1960 — 1976
The Idea
y
of the Bod
The Idea of
ingham,
,
Merce Cunn
n, Julian Beck Forti
Steve Paxto
and Simone
Meredith Monk
Biennale
ives of the
from the Arch
1960 — 1976
the Body
ISBN 978-
88-98727-03-2
IL CATALOGO
È SFOGLIABILE
ONLINE!
A questo indirizo troverai il catalogo e
tutte le istruzioni necessarie:
www.labiennale.org/ideadelcorpo
2
Le differenti esperienze del corpo documentate nella
Merce Cunningham introduce a una apertura del
mostra sono metafore di altrettante aperture della città
codice in cui la struttura, ossia la cornice, diventa come
al corpo. Il materiale visivo ritrovato nell’Archivio della
una esplosione di tanti elementi minimi, come fossero
Biennale documenta esperienze fondamentali avvenute
molecole libere: una costruzione coreografi ca che si basa
fuori dai teatri, e che portano l’attenzione di performer
sulla liberazione dalla struttura pur rimanendo dentro
e spettatori sull’urbanistica e sulla geografi a dei luoghi
la struttura. Steve Paxton propone invece un lavoro
della città. Questi artisti non solo hanno scelto uno
rivolto all’interno del cosmo dell’uomo per riuscire a
spazio alternativo a quelli abituali, ma soprattutto
far ‘cadere’ una fi gura, in un continuo smarginamento
hanno fatto della natura del luogo l’asse portante
dei sensi e del sentire. Simone Forti, nel video presente
della loro drammaturgia, in un percorso che è ben
in mostra, incarna l’idea di una nomade che persegue
documentato nelle foto scelte e nei video selezionati.
un’idea di corpo anche nella sua immediata fi sicità,
A partire soprattutto dal memorabile Event in piazza
e dunque anche l’idea che il pensiero possa apparire
San Marco che la compagnia di Merce Cunningham
anche attraverso la carne. Così anche la forza politica e
realizzò il 14 settembre 1972, ospite nei programmi
profetica dei corpi di Julian Beck e del Living Theatre,
di Biennale Musica, fra lo stupore degli astanti e la
o la vocalità rituale di Meredith Monk, riportano alla
quasi generale incomprensione della critica. I materiali
nostra attenzione un nuovo concetto di spettacolo, che
esposti documentano artisti la cui ricerca negli anni si è
in quegli anni ha approfondito l’idea di happening e di
svolta a 360 gradi, chiedendo al pubblico un’attenzione
performance, fi no a una dura maturità del corpo che si
e una lettura della propria arte inedita fi no ad allora.
è trasformata in un modo di vita. Virgilio Sieni
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Appunti di Virgilio Sieni
Cosa ha preceduto l’iniziativa della Biennale del 1972?
Il teatro fuori dal teatro: il senso era già stato vissuto in precedenza?
Nel 1972 Cunningham ha elaborato in Piazza San Marco uno dei suoi eventi come pratica della composizione
e allo stesso tempo del danzatore. Evento reso memorabile per la coincidenza tra ambientazione in un contesto
storico, del vissuto e socialità della piazza che incrociavano la ricerca coreografica.
Appunto 1
Appunto 2
Appunto 3
Soprattutto grazie alle esperienze del Judson Dance
L’andar fuori coincideva immediatamente con più
Dunque non lo spettacolo all’aperto ma la possibilità
Theater (1962>64), gruppo informale di danzatori
livelli estetici e culturali: la possibilità di liberare la
di aprire nuove percezioni e ricerche instaurando un
riunitosi intorno ai corsi di composizione di Robert
coreografia secondo spazialità desuete per accentuare
processo sulla geografia urbana e l’architettura del
Dunn e della Grand Union (1970), le ricerche parallele
l’elemento tecnico espressivo della composizione:
gesto teatrale in sintonia con i luoghi scelti, ribaltando
sull’improvvisazione e la contact dance di Paxton,
l’acqua e le verticalità, i tetti e le gallerie per la Brown;
la percezione dello spettacolo canonico da seduti
l’attenzione al gesto e la sua misura quale viatico alla vita
il contesto urbano in dialogo con lo spazio teatrale
con attori dislocati sul palco verso la frequentazione
stessa con Simone Forti, Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rayner,
per Cunningham, elemento dialogico che serviva
e la condivisione: la piazza e l’aperto come porta di
ma anche le analisi sul corpo in movimento verso la
al coreografo per sviluppare la frammentazione del
comunicazione senza barriere. Non si costruivano palchi
percezione di un nuovo spazio di Bruce Nauman, la
discorso coreografico secondo mutamenti casuali e
ma tutto avveniva scandagliando le potenzialità di quel
frammentazione della durata e dei punti di vista per una
indotti;
territorio e lavorando analiticamente sulla topografia
coreografia che cerca il pathos nella natura del gesto
nel Living il coinvolgimento in una sorta di mistero
e la relazione con il livello di ricerca coreografica: una
codificato come in Cunningham. Sostanzialmente
contemporaneo, la coralità come potenza del gruppo e
frammentazione della canonicità del teatro incidendo
cosa accade in quegli anni al senso della danza? Come
l’aperto al pari di un laboratorio dell’umano che mostra
sui volumi dell’aperto, sui margini e i perimetri, sui
il corpo della danza, la potenza e la sua sottrazione si
l’uomo in potenza, in ogni sua fase del processo creativo;
camminamenti e l’incontro con le persone, il pubblico.
insinuano nel pensiero dell’arte e attraverso l’arte?
in Monk l’elemento della natura, del luogo dell’infanzia
Quali rapporti tra questi danzatori e la musica, lo spazio
tra archeologia del corpo e tracce del territorio, un
la scena?
processo di fessurazione delle tecniche vocali e del
Appunto 4
rallentamento del movimento per cogliere il pneuma
Lo spostamento creato in quegli anni dai coreografi
cosmico del teatro attraverso la simultaneità delle
della scena americana lascia intuire un’archeologia della
azioni, con il pubblico mobile e girovago tra gli attori.
danza tutta proiettata verso la scoperta indicibile degli
elementi primari secondo modalità innovative: l’abitare
e frequentare spazi non canonici, sprofondamento nel
dettaglio come risorsa dell’intuizione artistica, la durata
come memoria di una quotidianità trasfigurata. Questa
nuova postura del coreografo nei confronti dello spazio
e della musica cosa ci ha mostrato, quali percorsi ha
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introdotto?
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Appunto 5
Appunto 6
Appunto 7
Cunningham propone nella condivisione con J. Cage
Paxton sposta l’attenzione su un corpo che cerca
Monk introduce una convergenza sottile tra danza,
un totale sprofondamento nell’adiacenza alle cose,
l’origine del gesto tra vertebre e tattilità, gravità e
movimento quotidiano, suono, voce e spazio: tessendo
dove l’elemento casuale, letteralmente oracolare, si
rovesciamento di forze: non più una forza centripeta ma
trame per intervalli di tempo, con veri intermezzi e soste,
ripercuote esteticamente in lavori che mostrano la
un donare “veramente” il proprio corpo, un procedere
cambio di luoghi e ritorni; sposta l’attenzione tra il dentro
potenza della fragilità, l’universalità del frammento, la
per pressioni modulate verso il corpo dell’altro a
e il fuori del corpo, tra il dentro e l’aperto. Quello che più
natura del gesto come del suono dislocati volutamente
realizzare una ciclicità di spinte e ascolti. Qui lo spazio
colpisce è il senso di durata che si insinua in ogni elemento
su radure che guardano al vuoto e al silenzio, al far
diviene quello compreso tra i corpi e quello immaginato
come voler prolungare in eterno ogni frammento. Forse
vuoto e procurare silenzio: un porsi sulla soglia di
dai corpi. Uno spazio fluttuante che sposta in ogni
è proprio questa immagine dell’infinito, la vicinanza al
ogni atto nell’abbandono totale di procedure teatrali.
istante il centro di gravità: spazio che diviene il luogo
“rito magico”, a far smarginare ogni elemento nell’altro
In questo nuovo spazio che emerge, l’interprete assume
di tante gravita.
come risonanza potente: al suono consegue la voce che
il carattere di individuo, incidendo in ogni istante sulla
risuona nello spazio; un istante dopo è il gesto che viene
musica e il senso musicale, apparentemente sconnesso.
trasmesso alla voce che apre un angolo spaziale, e così
Uno spazio completamente trasfigurato dalla presenza
via, all’infinito. Solitamente negli spettacoli della Monk
inaspettata di una inespressività sottile, maschera dai
è il pubblico la variabile, invitato a spostarsi tra un’azione
lineamenti lasciati a uno sguardo quale medium tra il
e l’altra.
dentro e il fuori.
Quali le principali differenze tra
Paxton, Beck, Monk e Forti?
Appunto 8
Gli artisti presenti nella mostra rappresentano un
momento storico che a ben pensare ha segnato e continua
a incidere sulle pratiche attuali. Ma proprio attraverso
il senso di inattualità di quegli artisti nei confronti del
loro tempo si vanno a delineare quelle differenze e
diversità che costituiscono nel loro insieme un campo
d’indagine fertilissimo che dalla ricerca introspettiva
e “cosmica” di Paxton, dove la postura dello spettatore
viene coinvolta dall’interiorità fisico spirituale del gesto,
passa al corpo sociale e antropologico di Simone Forti
e al corpo sociale e sonoro di Beck, così come alla
polifonia di gesti e voce di Monk; si tratta in ogni caso
di un corpo politico in quanto fondatore di radure di
libertà: quali le “vere” differenze tra questi artisti?
Quali sono le principali correnti e
scuole a seguito di tali movimenti negli
anni successivi?
Appunto 9
Il teatro di denuncia di Beck_Malina era fondato
sulla resistenza dell’attore e la sua frequentazione
del gesto come modo di vita; il percorso di Paxton
ha dato al corpo, e al corpo coreografico, l’essenza
della tattilità come risonanza continua tra interno
ed esterno, estendendo allo spazio senza riferimenti
precostituiti, il valore della gravità. L’utilizzo di
un corpo che guarda all’origine del primo gesto,
unitamente alla percezione di una narrazione tra
forze e vibrazioni quali fondamenta dell’atto figurale,
hanno originato una miriadi di risonanze nel lavori
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di molti coreografi fino ai nostri giorni.
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Steve Paxton
Golden Lion Biennale Danza 2014
keywords from a conversation with Stefano Tomassini – June 12th, 2014
on the Golden Lion
You know, it is fifty years, maybe to the day, I do not know, since I first came
in Venice on a barge flowed with Cunningham company, props and musical
instruments, technicians and dancers very slowly, into Venice, and very slowly, as is
the nature of a travel on a barge, to La Fenice. So it is curious this anniversary, and
deeply meaningful. Fifty years go by very quickly. I am deeply moved and highly
honoured to accept this in this unique city. Thank you.
on Jill Johnston’s quote: «Paxton has taken the most extreme liberated
position. He likes people for what they are and believes in their
physicality, their shape and way of moving, for what it is.»
It is an ambition. It is an ambition to see people this way. She captured something,
but not something that I am or have achieved. It is something that requires for every
person and for all the time the looking for that: what I think they are. Everything,
every philosophical position is totally screwed up by the fact that people are unique.
There is no generality possible.
on Bound and Jurij Konjar
First of all, let me say that Mr Konjar and I with all awareness have embarked an
impossible conversation which we are enjoying very much. Maybe what is most
important of what we are doing is not the direct effort of transmission of any kind,
but as we strive, as we try to discuss dance and the basis of dance, as we try to look
for that extreme liberated position, even within ourselves, you know, as what we just
are and what we just do, in the effort and in the warmth of the conversation maybe
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we get a little glimpse of each other’s paths.
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on J. S. Bach music and Glenn Gould
on disabled people as performer
I mean, with all respect for Glenn Gould and Mr Bach. My position relative to them
I spoke earlier about the uniqueness of each of us. That uniqueness can.. .we call it
was...I was thinking of Bach’s improvisations. He was said to be an extraordinary
disability or less-abled or whatever, but it is just “more unique qualities”.
improviser and yet we have no record of course of his play. We have made his music
The perception you get when you work with people whose qualities are very
into his work and I thought this was wrong and I took it upon myself to correct our
different than yours, like that conversation with Mr Konjar where we sometimes
cultures, serious attitude.
feel an edge of something that we are sharing, I find this extraordinarily strong.
Through the fingers of Glenn Gould it was an extraordinary percussion. The piano
When I meet somebody who cannot see, cannot hear or cannot move, something is
is a percussion instrument; Glenn played it as a percussionist, I believe. And as
drawn from me to make me try to perceive what the reality is. It is almost comical
for what Bach was, I think it is true that he came at a moment where his musical
how we feel in this effort. We can see intellectually how important it is and how
architecture was very persuasive, I am talking about the arrival of an instrument that
democratic it is to see things this way and from somebody else’s point of view. It
is so difficult to tune and to maintain that the rest of the music, where all had to
makes a lot possible that we try to do it but it takes...This is what I meant about the
change structurally to accommodate the piano. So that was too bad, but John Cage
constant striving. So I do not think I became sensitive, I think I was made sensitive
used to say that prior to Bach there were fourteen or fifteen different musical modes
by the actual rigors of doing the work. I became more sensitive. The people are
commonly played in Europe, and afterwards one. For him this was a problem, for
not a generality of people with disabilities, they are each unique people and the
me as a much more naïve person it was not so much a problem, and yet I thought I
openness that they require to be developed so that the communication can be full
didn’t understand the one mode that Bach proposed. I had listened to The Goldberg
and rich is the gift of the work.
all of my adult life. At a certain point I started to... When then Gould produced
Most times you are not required to be very open. Maybe children, old people,
his second major studio recording of it in the early 1980s; I was curious about the
your family, maybe not your family, or maybe you are close to the trial, maybe
difference between young Glenn Gould and as he turned out, Glenn Gould, at the
you become disciplinarian for their own good job. Do not see things from their
end of his life. The difference was worth pursuing and became the foundation for the
perspective, try to make them see things from an adult perspective, whatever, you
music which eventually after listening a lot I ended abusing, which was half of the
know, but in this work there were just so many moments of... I mean I do not really
performance from the early recording and half from the last recording.
understand the idea of telepathy in transmitting ideas through, but there seems
Then, unfortunately, I heard a recording I liked even better from Switzerland in
to be moments when you in your own mind break through whatever is between
1957; a live performance that I just… I was so smashing that I will sorry I had
you and another person and there is communication, and that was the training:
committed already to the performances that I chose. If I were to go back to this piece
looking for that moment and looking for the support that moment brings in the
which I stopped in the early 1990s, if I were to go back I will go back to 1957 and
relationship.
Glenn Gould fingers on that night. Isn’t it great for music that we can record it? If
only because it allows us so much more access to it. And yet to be there on that night
on curiosity
will be so much the better moment. I would never have wondered however to dance
It is foundational. But with work. It is not like your given curiosity. Your curiosity
live to Gould’s playing. I would have been... The recordings gave me time or gave
will occur with its own limits; how to get beyond those limits? It is all these things
my nervous system time to accommodate all the music, so over and over and over
are breaking through limits I see as I am talking, but everything is defined by
again dancing toward and choosing different pathways toward it is a bit like a jungle
ourselves as we see it at the moment. Just good to come back and if you are curious,
of notes; you know The Goldberg is... So many fingers, so busy, my Goodness. So it
for instance if the body is your field of curiosity, just remember that nothing
was an exploration for me of this phenomena, not of the grandeur Bach, and not of
important has been discovered yet. The important things are ahead and maybe
the phenomenal qualities of Glenn Gould as just… once you have the two of them
very far ahead. So we are still in a very primitive state, I believe. So curiosity is
together, what it is like? What it is like in there? That was my journey.
the fluid that is going to smooth our path onward into a greater, more complex
I think the importance of that grew on me very slowly. I would say that the skin,
understanding of what it is we are, what it is we can be.
which is the largest organ of the body, is not well understood in the West and I
do not know if it is in any culture. There is much about it, that is what culturised
on the knowledge of the body
made taboo, disregarded. There is much about it that is not appreciated. I think
This would be a terrible moment to say “No, nothing surprising left in the body”. I
the nature of the unconscious mind is strongly related to the nature of our...what
think it is a common path in life to start off feeling that you know everything and in
is the word… the diaphragm, the permeable nature of our surface. As a dancer
doubt feeling that you know less and less everyday. There seems to be a capacity for
you are often confronted with human elements and events and pretentions. With
understanding, it does not diminish, but what we understand is to be understood,
contact improvisation came a big research into the language of skin and exchange.
gets ever larger, more enormous. I have never sought to grasp everything anyway,
Astonishingly it was there. It was not so much an artistic research. What a kind of
so I am not disappointed by this, how this fact I have found in my own life, but it is
event that happens when you suddenly realize something has been there all alone
encouraging that there will be no finish to the processes that I have been engaged
unnoticed! This is something culture does to us and for us which is to keep us
in, you know, the idea that you get some place is ridiculous. It is just nice, it is a
mentally channelled. Once you see what channels are, especially of the senses, you
little bit like knowing the ocean; it is just nice to have to swim; the ocean will do
come to ask if the Cardin question is appropriate and if the idea that we have an
its own things.
inside and an outside, there is something outside us, and a different something inside
us, if that is appropriate. It just gives you a slightly different take on what is going on
on decision and conscience
outside the cultural, I say cultural and I might say social and I might say familial and
Having begun as a modern dancer, and in the work of Graham and Limón and
I might say meme. How will we allow ourselves to be channelled? We allow ourselves
many others, having an example of people making study decisions starting with
to be...we are sometimes channelled without our permission, we are channelled all
movement techniques that they invented and then choreography that they invented
the time through the media. I think it is interesting to look or to realize that you can
and thus proving during the 20th century that a single person could invent a whole
go beyond everything you know, because you do not know everything yet. So this
artistic realm, and proving it over and over again. By mid 20th century came the
is going to be this place just outside your boundaries that you will recognize when
work of Cunningham who proved that was just one model, the entire modern
you get there.
dance idea, and its satisfactory result was one model, and he set off another model
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in which composition could be influenced by chance procedures, and I stress the
we now know that it is a flexible and a mutable instrument. It is used to be thought
word procedures and not so much the word chance because chance in English at
that your mind stopped at a certain point and it did not change any further but you
least suggest a kind of chaotic and uncared-for procedure, and this was anything
see how little we know that even that basic thing was wrong. Maybe it is wrong
but that, this word will taught out his curiosity, was provoked...What he was trying
again, but now they think that it changes throughout life. It is plastic, what is being
to avoid was something common in the aesthetically based works that had preceded
grown by the exercises in the studio is this much a mind or part of the movement
him which was an almost personal taste. The kind of decisions that one is up to
mind, the connections between all the different things we are: the emotions
make because one is who one is. He was trying to avoid that and this is what
and the instincts, the proportions and the mass, all of that being united into an
I understand. In his work obviously he made some kind of artistic process that
instrument. We are turning the human being into a medium, into an instrument
supported him as much as he supported it, and when he was ninety years old he was
and this is so crazy but we do it all the time and we certainly 01.02.28 pool shark,
still choreographic as he died, because he could and because he was interested in it.
a long-distance runner is also doing the same thing; the body, the human being
He was still thinking up movements in his last days. So that means I think that his
as a thing whose path might be anything. I think it is in consciousness and in
process was at least for him something that fed him and the company and therefore
building consciousness, I think that is the work they were involved in and that is
the performances and therefore our time in this profound way.
why performance is such a great place to happen, it is an expression of an hardest
Note, if you look at the lineage through, from Isadora stamping her feet onward,
consciousness and performance consciousness for a public which is sitting there
you will see that the people that we regard that we really esteem did not continue
without...in a freely blank state. This is my favourite state to watch things, just let
the work of their teachers, but as Isidora did and as Nijinsky did and as the other
them happen to me in a theatre, and absorb a change, even just a little fraction of
modern dancers and fore people did, they developed a new approach.
change in attitude or major change, to observe that. Our problem is that we have
So by the time Cunningham showed up he not only developed a new approach but
decided that consciousness is all that is and that it is terribly important to us. We
he adopted some of the older approaches, so he was not but tyrannised by the idea
make it important. I would submit that the none conscious part of the brain is
of the unique movement work.
far more important and far more speedy and fare more complete and we do not
And then came my generation who studied with Cunningham and who had studied
have access to this. So it is like we have got the encyclopaedia but all we can see
with the others as well, and performed for them sometimes, and the question that
are the title pages. That is consciousness. It is about getting... It would be nice if
was left...in the Johnson days there was a lot of attention paid to the ordinary
we could find the way to have everything we are available to the conscious mind. I
body and ordinary movement. It is really difficult to express what this was meant
can imagine the conscious mind would go up in smoke, if this happened however.
to display or what we discovered by thinking this way. I am myself so stunned by
the brilliance of the work that had come before me, I decided to go back to the
on learning
basic cohesions. I wanted to find something ancient in the body before all this
This piece of writing the motivation for The Golden Lion is one of the most poetic,
aestheticized movement. And (56.20) XX movement of dance I wanted to find
accurate and yet ephemeral pieces of writing about my work. I have never expected
what was basic. I have spent decades working on walking, standing and sitting,
to find on one page such a short form, such a clear and yet (how do you pen it
which is a very long time. I knew that it had to be a long time because I knew, I
down here?) expression of what the last fifty years have been for me. This question
sensed that it was something invisible to us because it is the basic nature of our
even goes beyond that, into... In many fields it is required for the accomplishment
movement world, not giving much thought, not giving attention, it does not need
that a consciousness and the non-conscious part of the brain, and the body, they
to be paid attention to, unless with disabled. Then suddenly the issue of getting
are united in special ways, so this is nothing unusual. It happens in dance I think
up from a chair becomes...it would be a miracle if that happened. You perform
because we cannot avoid it, it is not that we set out to transmit this material, it is
a miracle all the time. Walking would be a miracle for such a person. Sometimes
that the material is human. We are dealing with human material. All of this comes
eating is a miracle, you know, if they could just do it. So this does really relate
to the fore. If consciousness can accept what it finds and can find enough and can
to why disability interests me because it does give me an appreciation of what
tune to the way in which we experience and the way in which we produce our own
ordinary, how ordinary, what the category of ordinary, how it is a kind of dismissed
experience and can loose its sense of encapsulation in the brain of the person, and if
mental... we do not need to focus there. We can be much more clever than that.
awareness can begin to seep out of the brain and into the face, and down the neck,
So I was de-aestheticizing and de-cleverizing movement thinking for myself. After
and into the torso, into the breath, into the weight, into the limbs and accept that
about ten years, however, I thought: “Ok, is this it? Am I going to spend the next
and continue to accept this reality, I think it is the beginning of the learning, it is
40 years, as it turned out, thinking about walking and walking and standing and
one of the processes that we can have to become conscious of as much as we are and
standing and sitting and sitting, you know... Or is there more fun to be ahead?” So
have. I do not know how to say it, this stuff is all very difficult in language. I am just
then I set out to explore improvisation. Improvisation comes from that question
saying that none of us has less of it that anybody else; everybody is channelled to a
about how do we initiate any idea in the space, how and why, where does it come
certain degree. You are as much your channel as you are your coloration, as you are
from? So you decide or maybe you do not decide, maybe you are thirsty before you
your dress today, as you are your mass.
know you are standing and you are walking and your body is operating. That is a
wonderful state to be in but it becomes wonderful only if you notice it and that it
on dance as political act
is happening. If you do not notice it, it is not wonderful and it is not anything, it is
I suspect that all art is political. All art is in the body politic arising from it in
the tree falling in the forest with nobody around to pay attention. In other words
various places you never know where, going too much of it. It is a balance. It is very
human consciousness is the place where things become wonderful or not. That is
interesting that the church try to capture art for its own uses. Certainly political
what we have got, that is where it happens.
bodies try to capture art for propaganda purposes, for communication purposes,
My next period we would say... Imagine going from a study of standing still into
they are all the same. Something communicates very well to art. The great thing is
a full flow acrobatic of two people improvising together: that was the next step.
of course that its source is not predictable; their force is not controllable in the usual
What are the reflexes, what are the impulses, how can we study those, see them
ways. Therefore it is always going to lead us away from the kind of blessed arts. The
and most important: feel them within ourselves souls, in other words bring them
church and the State try as hard as they can to deal with humanity, but humanity
to consciousness. You study ballet for then years to make a dancer, we talked about
also has to have a voice, I say in the matter. So I think art is always going to be a...
how long it takes to...it takes ten years to make a dancer’s legs. We do not seem to
Even if it just makes us think “Oh, that is not very good. Someone could do better”,
be paying attention to the fact that the other end of the body, the dancers’ mind,
even just that thought is political.
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Performance
Record
Roselee Goldberg, Bice Curiger, and Jacqueline Burckhardt
in conversation with Nikki Columbus
R O S E L E E G O L D B E R G is founding director and curator of Performa, the biennial of visual art performance
in New York, and the author of Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present, first published in 1979. /
B I C E C U R I G E R , editor-in-chief of Parkett, is also the first artistic director of the Fondation Vincent van
Gogh Arles inaugurated this year. She was a curator at Kunsthaus Zürich for many years. /
J A C Q U E L I N E B U R C K H A R D T , co-editor of Parkett. / N I K K I C O L U M B U S is US senior editor of Parkett.
Per gentile concessione di Jacqueline Burckhardt e Bice Curiger,
pubblicato su Parkett n. 94/2004, numero speciale per i 30 anni della rivista.
NIKKI COLUMBUS: Today we’re returning to a conversation that first took place
Bice, my parents, and some friends, whom I dragged there. I also organized
in the pages of Parkett thirty years ago. In issue #2, in 1984, Bice asked a group of
workshops with artists like Dana Reitz, Vito Acconci, Simone Forti, Bill T. Jones,
American art critics what had happened to New York’s once lively performance art
and Arnie Zane. And local performance artists would come to these workshops.
scene. In issue #4, the following year, RoseLee responded to this question and
BICE CURIGER: Zurich had a very strong underground and subcultural scene.
discussed how performance was moving out of the art galleries and alternative
But the American scene seemed so much more professional and intellectual. There
spaces where it had taken up residence in the ’60s and ’70s, and had split in two:
was a fascination with it. We didn’t travel like we do today, and we weren’t in such
Some of the “stars” of those decades moved into larger theater spaces, into pop
close contact. The American scene in the ’70s was in communication with
music, and into mainstream culture while more fringe performers took their shows
Düsseldorf, with Konrad Fischer and other gallerists there. But it was a new thing
into the nightclubs. Thanks in large part to RoseLee’s books, we know this New
to invite Americans to tour in Europe. ROSELEE GOLDBERG: I was director of
York history well, but the European story is less familiar. Jacqueline, you curated a
the gallery at the Royal College of Art in London in the ’70s, and from the
performance program for Kunsthaus Zürich in the late ’70s and early ’80s. What
beginning of my time there, we had a weekly performance series. We had the
was the performance scene like in Switzerland and Europe at that time, just as
Kipper Kids, Gilbert and George, Anne Bean, Christian Boltanski, Marina
Parkett was beginning? JACQUELINE BURCKHARDT: There was a local scene
Abramovic´. There were very interesting performances taking place in Europe, in
with some great Swiss performers, like the dancer and multimedia artist Anna
Düsseldorf, London, Paris, Milan, by artists such as Rebecca Horn, Monika
Winteler and the dancer Christine Brodbeck. Then there were Urs Lüthi, Luciano
Baumgartl, Klaus Rinke, VALIE EXPORT, and Gina Pane. But this work was not
Castelli, and Manon as well, for whom performance was actually more of a “pose”;
being seen in New York. I became curator at the Kitchen in ’78, and I had just
Roman Signer, who didn’t attract widespread attention until much later; Anton
written my book on performance. I was a little concerned about stepping into an
Bruhin, a draftsman and sound poet; and Dieter Meier, an artist who presented
institution, albeit an “alternative” one. I thought, “How do I go and run a
actions in public in the ’70s and then became the singer for the electro-pop band
performance organization when I’ve been talking about performance as being this
Yello. Based in Geneva, John Armleder and the Groupe Ecart were more influenced
completely radical, anti-institutional medium?” But I soon got over it, programming
by Fluxus and John Cage. They all performed mainly in Europe and, in fact, some
new work that I felt was essential to introduce, in a lot of different media. I created
only in Switzerland. We were also very bound to the American scene. Jean-
a video viewing room—a place to hang out, chat, and see ongoing video programs
Christophe Ammann was then director of the Kunsthalle in Basel, and Adelina
day and night. The first shows in the gallery alongside it were by Robert Longo,
von Fürstenberg was director of the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva. They
Cindy Sherman, and Jack Goldstein. I had just come back from London, so I also
had started to present international performance art in the mid-’70s. I went to
presented performances by many of the artists I’d been working with there,
these events and was totally fascinated, and I wanted to show the performers in
including the Kipper Kids, Judy Nylon, Brian Eno, and Bruce McLean. I was very
Zurich as well. At that time, Zurich had no Kunsthalle, no well-equipped offspaces
aware of trying to connect New York to what I had experienced in Europe. But I
for performers. So I organized this at Kunsthaus Zürich, where I worked as a
was also very conscious of curating a program that emphatically looked at all
restorer. Then the Kunsthaus, Kunsthalle Basel, and the CAC started sharing costs
media, all the time, making no separation or hierarchy between disciplines. JB: In
to bring over performers, who would tour through Switzerland. NC: So you
1981, Harald Szeemann became an independent curator at the Kunsthaus, and the
brought American artists of this generation to Zurich? JB: Yes. The American
director told me that from now on Szeemann would take care of the performance
scene was completely unknown here. In 1980, I presented Laurie Anderson for the
program. But, in fact, after that, there was no performance on a regular basis
first time in Zurich, and there were seventeen people in the audience, including
anymore. It was a pity, especially because he himself had staged one-man
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performances in Bern in the ’60s and it was his doing that James Lee Byars
profoundly about skill and precision. And I’m all for finding ways to sup port the
cultivated close contact with Bern for the rest of his life and left lots of traces
dance world in this country, where there is no support! It feels like we’ve come full
behind. Since the ’50s people had already been experimenting in Bern with
circle, bringing radical dance back into the art context where it was in the ’70s.
“scenographic” works in the fine arts, like Daniel Spoerri (then still a ballet dancer
Although it should be noted that in the ’70s, that collaboration or crossover was
at the opera), Meret Oppenheim, Jean Tinguely, and Niki de Saint Phalle. RG: In
created by the artists and dancers themselves. Now it’s being generated more by
New York in the ’80s, performance entered the clubs, and the “performance
curatorial interest. BC: You have to remember that Switzerland is small. Zurich
monologue”— introduced by Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, and Karen Finley—
has 400,000 inhabitants, not 8 million, like London or New York. We are not in
became ubiquitous. Performance that might be more ambitious in terms of scale or
the same situation. MoMA has an enormous potential audience, which is unique.
content seemed to have reached a problematic dead end. There was nowhere for
Switzerland has an amazing density of museums and Kunsthallen—but it’s all
artists to grow up. There was the Kitchen, and then there was BAM, but there was
dispersed. NC: So each has a smaller, more local audience? BC: Yes. There might
nothing in between. How many downtown artists could make the transition to the
be a fantastic performance, but how many people are going to see it, who is going
scale of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, an opera house with 2,500 seats? Very
to write about it, where will they write about it—who is really interested in what
few. Meredith Monk could do it. Laurie Anderson could do it. Phil Glass could do
happened in a small city? You know, it’s a completely different situation. If you live
it. NC: Tate Modern opened the Tanks a couple of years ago, and now MoMA and
in Basel, and you’re not totally into this specialist scene, you might not really hear
the Whitney are building designated areas for performance in their new buildings.
about what happens in Zurich. There isn’t this centralization of discourse like you
Are these the kinds of spaces that you’d hoped for? RG: It’s interesting to see all
have in New York. RG: I think the scale of America is so unimaginable in a
this real estate, bricks and mortar, being built for performance, and yes, I think it
European setting. There’s such a fascination in this country with mass culture, and
is going to make a big difference to the kind of work we’ll be seeing in the future.
it’s constantly being examined by American artists. But then I try to think, what is
In addition, these new spaces will demand a new generation of specialized curators
mass culture in Switzerland or Germany or Austria? BC: Well, even our museums
with knowledge of the history of performance who also know how to produce this
have become part of mass culture; marketing has been integrated into curatorial
material. Performance is now entering the museum at full force, at many different
work. And we have become more skeptical today than we were twenty or thirty
levels. It is more and more being incorporated at a historical level in the galleries.
years ago, when we thought we were embracing pop culture because it was so
The ’70s are now history, and museums cannot just have one big empty room that
democratic. When Laurie Anderson suddenly appeared in the charts with “O
says “Conceptual art.” They have to show the work of Conceptual artists who were
Superman,” that was an amazing, extraordinary event. But today we are a bit more
making live performance, from Adrian Piper to Joan Jonas to Vito Acconci. Since
sober about that because we know the machine will devour everything and make
2000, the idea of the museum has changed completely. Remember when you used
something completely different out of it. RG: Laurie’s song became a hit, Warner
to walk through a museum and you’d whisper, like being in a library or study hall?
Brothers gave her a six-record contract, and everybody was like, “Oh my God!
Now the museum has turned into this pleasure palace of intellectual excitement,
She’s selling out.” Soon afterward, they all wanted to sell out, too. In the ’80s, we
and spaces are being built for large crowds to gather. So yes, there’s a new kind of
were constantly having this conversation about high and low. What is high art?
architecture of the museum being demanded by “the live,” in many different forms,
What is mass culture? And how can we cross over? Today, of course, we’re part of
including music and dance as well. I’m sure, from now on, every new museum will
a digital world that connects everything to everything else. Young artists today
have a dedicated performance space. NC: Bice and Jacqueline, is this a trend in
aren’t asking those questions; they just assume that it’s a continuum. NC: But now
Europe as well? Are dance and performance happening in the museum? And are
we’re seeing this crossover in the opposite direction—from popular culture to
museums in Switzerland and elsewhere expanding to include new theaters for
performance art. James Franco and Jay Z want to be part of Performa; I even read
performance? JB: So far, Swiss museums and Kunsthallen don’t have many spaces
that Angelina Jolie contacted you. RG: I was certainly surprised when Angelina
with the facilities to accommodate performance, like good dance floors. The needs
Jolie called, that it was really her on the phone. And I asked, “How come you’re
of most performers have become more ambitious, and the public has broadened, so
interested in this?” She answered, “Because what you do is not about making
now performances are shown more often in professional spaces. BC: Zurich has
money.” I’m not giving you an exact quote, but it was something to that effect.
Gessnerallee, which is one of the smaller theaters, and Rote Fabrik. So there are
“Everything that I work on has this other measure.” There was an acknowledgement
spaces where such things can happen. And Kunsthaus Zürich holds the archive of
that in the art world, pure experimentation is still allowed. NC: Yes, and they also
the modern dance pioneer Suzanne Perrottet, which includes a large collection of
get to be an author of what they’re doing. So, if more and more people are turning
drawings by the choreographer and theorist Rudolf von Laban, as well as
to performance, does this put pressure on curators? Bice, your inaugural exhibition
documents related to his work. Last year, the American artist Kelly Nipper
at the Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles this spring is called “Van Gogh Live!”
performed at the Kunsthaus in dialogue with his drawings. Basically, in contrast to
Last summer, as a “Prélude to the Opening,” there were performances by Nils
the United States, the scene is well-funded and can perform in suitable spaces.
Bech—who also performed at your Venice Biennale in 2011—and Guillaume
There is the annual dance festival Steps, with groups performing not only in fringe
Bruère painted in public on the city’s main square. Fifteen years ago, would you
venues but also in places like the Zürich Opera House, where so-called “advanced”
have done something similar or no? You’ve been interested in performance for a
dance arts are presented. So there are venues for such things. But I think it’s
long time, but do you see waves in your own curatorial practice in terms of when
dangerous to generalize—to think that because there are now two or three large
you incorporate it? BC: The very first exhibition I was involved with, when I was
spaces in the world specifically designed for performance that all of a sudden the
in my early or mid-twenties, was a feminist exhibition called “Frauen Sehen
whole art scene will emerge from there. The Tate has made this symbolic gesture
Frauen” (Women See Women, Städtische Kunstkammer zum Strauhof, Zurich,
to open these fantastic spaces with the Tanks, and now we have to see if an
1975). We were a collective of women, some artists, some students. It was very
interested public will fill these spaces, inspired by the innovative power of art. RG:
anarchic somehow. We created a theater group called Frauenrakete— Rakete is
There’s a broad cross-generational, cross-disciplinary audience who will come to
“rocket.” It lasted about two or three years, and we performed maybe five times,
museums to see this work. Performance is actually very accessible, more so than,
sometimes even in front of a thousand people, with completely amateurish but
say, an exhibition of Abstract Expressionist painting. Many will say, “Well, I didn’t
exuberant manifestations. Then I organized another exhibition, in the summer of
study art history. I don’t know how to respond to this.” But everybody can look at
1980, that was close to the punk movement of the late ’70s. It was called “Saus und
a Marina Abramovic´ piece and have a response. As for dance, I think there’s a
Braus” (Revel and Riot). That was the first time Fischli and Weiss showed their
hunger in the art world to see work that has a different expertise, that’s so
work together and punk bands like Kleenex and Yello were playing at art
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exhibitions. So that’s my background. It was never so separate. It just depends if
it didn’t happen because of money. So I think it’s becoming much more expensive.
you see someone doing interesting work. In 1994 in the exhibition “Signs and
RG: Generally, performance is expensive to produce because people need places to
Wonders – Niko Pirosmani and Recent Art” at Kunsthaus Zürich I presented a
stay and airplane tickets and food to eat and spaces to rehearse. Reenactment is an
whistling performance by Klara Schilliger and Valerian Maly, who sat and whistled
exciting way to reach into history and bring it into the present. Marina’s
under a red velvet cover. And later I organized performances of the duo “Geholte
reenactment of other people’s work and her reenactment of her own work was
Stühle” and Minimetal (1998). NC: Jacqueline, as director of the Sommerakademie
profound, both as sculpture and installation. Each piece tells you about the
at Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, you choose a guest curator and fellows for each
historical period in which it was produced. So, yes, the art historian in me says
summer’s program. Are you seeing an increase in applicants interested in
reconstructions are absolutely important. And then the curator says some can be
performance? The curator for this summer, Raimundas Malašauskas, has frequently
reproduced, and some shouldn’t be. A curatorial overview is essential to successful
featured performers in his exhibitions, from dancers to hypnotists. JB: Since it
reconstructions. NC: One strand of performance we don’t seem to see any more is
began in 2006, performance has been central to the Sommerakademie, with
the kind of transgressive work that came out of Viennese Actionism and body art.
speakers such as Thomas Hirschhorn and Jeremy Deller and fellows like Tellervo
Does it exist today? BC: We live in such a different world nowadays, I think it’s
Kalleinen, San Keller, and Tris Vonna-Michell. Herbert Lachmayer was the guest
difficult to compare. That was a different society—it was postwar and post-
curator of the second edition, and he invited the Austrian collective Gelitin, who
existentialism. JB: To have a Hermann Nitsch— BC: Günter Brus, Schwarzkogler
built a tent on the roof of the Zentrum Paul Klee, where they lived and performed
and held workshops. Performance is a vital element of the program. NC: Featuring
. . . JB: I think certain things happen in a certain historical-social-political context,
and they have to be recorded. But it’s still dated to a certain time. Maybe in
performance in a program of events and discussions in an academy setting is easier
America, there was Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy. But just thinking about some
than what is demanded by a museum. How do you approach an exhibition of
works by Carolee Schneemann, would these still be possible now? I mean, I think
performance, which is limited by its documentation? BC: When I curated “The
they wouldn’t have the same impact anymore. RG: I totally agree. Historical
Expanded Eye” (Kunsthaus Zurich, 2006), I devoted a whole section to
context shapes the work. Actionism was about war in Europe and Vietnam;
experimental film in the ’60s. And I realized that only a few figures, like Nam June
Carolee Schneemann’s work related to the sexual revolution and feminism. I think
Paik and a few others, managed to become part of art history because they also
the times are incredibly different. The last time we saw such transgressive work was
created objects, and they always had one leg in the gallery scene, the museum
during the AIDS crisis, with artists like David Wojnarowicz. Today some of the
scene, the biennial scene. Someone like Stan VanDerBeek was not part of film
more critical work is dealing with gender or transgender issues on the one hand, or
history, and he was not part of art history, but now, with the importance of video
with politics in the Middle East on the other. Both convey a sense of urgency
art, we go back and look at these things. I think with performance there might also
about lives lived, a feeling that the artist has no choice but to confront deeply felt
be a lack of names because these people did not appear on the radar at the right
issues. BC: Looking back at the last twenty or thirty years, it seems like performance
moment, or at the right place, and their work tends to disappear. RG: Every artist
is an area where expressivity, the courage to show affect, continued to flourish
since the late ’70s has been finding ways to make art objects, drawings, or
although it had been banned from the visual arts after the neo-expressionism of
photographs that are standalone references to their performance. Joan Jonas, for
the ’80s. RG: You’re absolutely right. Performance allows for an enormous variety
example, has made beautiful miniature theaters that you can look through and see
of very specific concerns. It can be very expressive. It is also “figurative” as opposed
a projection on the back wall. We’re touring an exhibition called “Performance
to abstract because the human body is at its center, and so it’s also, by its very
Now,” which includes video, installations, objects, and drawings made since
nature, somewhat narrative—every body tells a story. Performance allows for many
2000—costumes by Kelly Nipper, a film by Jérôme Bel, photographs by Nikhil
layered ideas to be presented, and for great variables in aesthetics and image
Chopra and Clifford Owens, and an installation specially designed by Marina to
making. It comes in so many different shapes and sizes, yet it is mostly driven by
show “Seven Easy Pieces.” NC: You’ve long stressed the importance of
content, by meaning. I am often asked, “What if performance becomes too
documentation, contra to those who argue performance is only intended for a
institutionalized in the museum context?” But it has been “institutionalized” for a
firsthand audience. RG: The fact that performance is ephemeral becomes a kind of
long time, if we consider the work of some of the major artists of the late twentieth
excuse for critics and art historians to avoid dealing with this incredibly important
and early twentyfirst centuries, such as Paul McCarthy, Matthew Barney, Mike
medium. To say, “You had to be there” makes no sense. I wasn’t at the Battle of
Kelley, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Marina, Ai Weiwei. Their work has long
Waterloo either. I wasn’t at the French Revolution. But it doesn’t negate the
been in museums and much of it is performance-related. For me, this work is part
absolute validity of this material in shaping and shifting culture and art history as
of an extended line of performance history; it demonstrates a kind of performance
we know it. Museums are full of performance-related material: Futurist texts, Kurt
intelligence, an understanding of the disruptive and compelling nature of
Schwitters collages, Yves Klein paintings, Yoko Ono Films. They’re just called by
performance. NC: I just have one last question for Bice and Jacqueline: Parkett has
another name. NC: You’ve published a book for each iteration of Performa,
collaborated over the years with a number of artists who work in performance, such
covering every event in each biennial. Do you feel that documentation should be
as Laurie Anderson, whom we mentioned earlier, Robert Wilson, Gilbert and
limited to text and photographs? The Performa website includes some video
George. But the publication has traditionally been limited to collaborating with
documentation, but have you ever thought of including a DVD with the books?
artists who can create limited-edition objects. However, just as RoseLee continues
RG: Well, we have over seven hundred hours of performance video from the
to encourage visual artists to expand into performance, I wonder whether you
different biennials. I know how to write and edit books, but I don’t know how to
could imagine Parkett in the future encouraging performance artists to create
edit film! So it’s a matter of time and money, but one day soon we’ll find a way to
objects. Would Parkett ever collaborate with a choreographer? BC: We always
make this material available. NC: Another mode that enjoyed a real moment is
went to Frankfurt to see Bill Forsythe’s performances. A collaboration would have
reenactment—the least technological form of documentation. This culminated in
been a possibility, but it never crossed my mind. Maybe I should tell you that for
Abramovic´’s “Seven Easy Pieces,” which you just mentioned a moment ago, in
years I was trying to convince the rock star Prince to collaborate with Parkett. I
which she reenacted other performers’ works, and her MoMA retrospective in
figured he could tear his shirt into thirty pieces and we could offer them to our
2010, in which she trained people to reenact her own work. But since then, it
readers as an edition. But how do you write a letter to Prince? “I’ve always been a
doesn’t seem so visible. Is reenactment still a viable way of preserving performance
great fan of yours.” I mean, that sounds so stupid. I tried all these possible ways to
art? Is it still happening? RG: Have you been seeing that in Europe at all? BC: A
get in touch with him. I think the closest I got is I heard that his bodyguards were
year or two ago, Kunsthalle Vienna wanted to do something with Marina, and then
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flipping through an issue of Parkett. RG: That’s close!
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Merce Cunningham
alla Biennale di Venezia:
1960 - 1972 – 1995
di Lia Durante
1
1960 | XXIII Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea
La prima partecipazione di Merce Cunningham
programmazione del 23. Festival Internazionale
alla Biennale di Venezia risale al 1960 dove sarà
di Musica Contemporanea. Solo in ultimo si trova
presente con Spettacolo di danza. In questo periodo
traccia della compagnia in un pieghevole con il
la Biennale non aveva ancora istituito il Settore
programma a stampa della rassegna, modificato a
Danza, che arriverà solo nel 1998, ma la disciplina
penna rossa, dove appare cancellata una serata in
veniva annualmente rappresentata sin dalle prime
origine destinata al Concerto di Musiche di Paul
edizioni all’interno del Festival di Musica, con uno
Hindemith sostituita da Spettacolo di danza.
o due spettacoli per volta. Tra le compagnie e gli
(fig. 2 scansione programma con correzione)
artisti invitati negli anni: il Balletto Jia Ruskaia, il
Balletto del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Aurél M.
Possiamo
Milloss, il Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas,
Cunningham sia avvenuto tramite David Tudor,
dedurre
che
il
coinvolgimento
di
il Balletto di Berlino, il New York City Ballet,
voluto a Venezia da Karlheinz Stockausen per
il Balletto del Théatre Royal de la Monnaie di
il Concerto di Musica elettronica e da camera
Bruxelles, la Compagnia ufficiale delle Repubblica
presentato il 23 settembre nella Sala delle Colonne
popolare di Cina.
di Ca’ Giustinian, in cui venivano eseguiti
(fig. 1 manifesto e programma serata)
Kontakte e Refrain (prime esecuzioni in Italia).
Tra i documenti ritrovati, il contratto stipulato
Prendendo in esame i pochi documenti presenti
il 3 agosto tra la Biennale e gli artisti, che ci
in archivio relativi a questa prima apparizione di
restituisce le firme originali di David Tudor,
Cunningham alla Biennale, si scopre che la presenza
Merce Cunningham, John Cage e Carolyn Brown,
della compagnia è avvenuta in modo quasi casuale.
ingaggiati per 380.000 lire complessive a recita.
Non c’è infatti traccia di corrispondenza che possa
testimoniare l’intenzione da parte della direzione
Lo spettacolo di danza si tiene il 24 settembre
della Biennale e dell’organizzatore del Festival
al Gran Teatro La Fenice. Insieme a Merce
Mario Labroca di inserire Cunningham nella
Cunningham
11
danza
Carolyn
Brown.
Ad
2
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accompagnarli al pianoforte John Cage e David
Tudor che eseguono brani dello stesso Cage e di
Christian Wolff, Earle Brown, Toshi Ichiyanagi,
Christian Wolff e Bo Nilsson.
Robert Rauschenberg disegna i costumi, che le foto
a disposizione per quegli anni ci restituiscono in
bianco e nero. È noto del resto come Cunningham
dagli anni ’50, in particolare con gli happening
presentati al Black Mountain College di Asheville
nel North Carolina, avesse instaurato uno stretto
rapporto artistico e umano con musicisti come
Cage e Tudor, e con artisti come Rauschemberg,
Johns e altri.
Prende vita in questo modo, a partire dai membri
che costituivano la compagnia di Cunningham,
una comunità artistica destinata a influenzare gli
ambienti musicali e artistici di quegli anni.
La rassegna stampa dell’epoca, poco nutrita su
questa serata un po’ inconsueta del Festival, riporta
che l’opera e il balletto assenti dal 23. Festival
Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea sono
stati sostituiti da due manifestazioni giudicate
“eccentriche”: da un lato il debutto in Italia del
“complesso americano creato dal compositore
John Cage e dal ballerino Merce Cunningham” e
dall’altro dallo spettacolo di canzoni Giro a vuoto
2 con Laura Betti.
( fig. 3 articoli)
3
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CRONACHE DALL'ARCHIVIO STORICO
Almanacco della Biennale:
1960 – 1972 – 1995
a cura dell’Archivio Storico
1960
Commissario straordinario della Biennale: Giovanni Ponti
Segretario Generale: Gian Alberto Dell’Acqua
30. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte
dal 18 giugno al 16 ottobre
La novità di questa edizione riguarda la
Manifesto (con la presenza di importanti
struttura della giuria per l’assegnazione
esponenti del movimento artistico, tra i
dei premi ufficiali (quattro per altrettanti
quali Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni,
artisti:
stranieri),
Gino Severini) e le mostre personali di
attraverso la designazione di sette esperti
Brancusi e di Fautrier. A quest’ultimo è
di chiara notorietà scelti dalla presidenza
assegnato, insieme a Hans Hartung, il
della Biennale, sulla base di una rosa di
premio della Presidenza del Consiglio
nomi fornita dai commissari stranieri.
dei Ministri, mentre a Emilio Vedova e
Tale edizione, come la precedente, limita
Pietro Consagra sono assegnati i premi
la sezione italiana agli artisti partecipanti
del Comune di Venezia. Con il nuovo
per invito al fine di assicurare un livello
ingresso di Islanda, Liberia e Perù le
qualitativo elevato. Accanto a essi, le
partecipazioni nazionali salgono a 32
mostre individuali dedicate a Renato
e confermano la tendenza a limitare il
Birolli e Luigi Spazzapan, e la “Mostra
numero degli artisti.
due
italiani,
due
storica del Futurismo”, commemorativa
del cinquantesimo anniversario del primo
19. Festival Internazionale del Teatro di Prosa
dal 15 settembre al 9 ottobre
Organizzatore tecnico: Adolfo Zajotti
Il Festival porta in scena quattro opere,
24 febbraio al 1° marzo.
fra le quali una prima rappresentazione
Le compagnie coinvolte provengono
assoluta: La grande speranza di Carlo
dagli atenei di cinque Paesi europei:
Marcello Rietmann per la regia di Luigi
Spagna
Squarzina, che documenta il dramma
Jugoslavia (Accademia teatrale Brank
degli immigrati calabresi in Liguria.
Krsmanovic di Belgrado), Germania
Ha luogo per la prima volta il Festival
(Libera Università di Berlino Ovest),
Internazionale del Teatro di Prosa
Italia (Ca’ Foscari) e Belgio (Università
Universitario della durata di 6 giorni, dal
di Bruxelles)
13
(Università
di
Barcellona),
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21. Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica
dal 24 agosto al 7 settembre
Direttore della Mostra Emilio Loreno; Commissione di
selezione: Emilio Lonero, Carlo Bo, Ottavio Croze, Ottavio
Jemma, Vinicio Marinucci, Luigi Volpicelli
Il presidente della giuria Marcel
maestri del cinema con opere di Robert
Achard assegna il Leone d’oro a Le
Bresson, Charlie Chaplin e Sergej M.
passage du Rhin di André Cayatte. Nel
Eisenstein. Tra i 27 paesi partecipanti
film, ambientato durante la seconda
vi è anche il Portorico con due
guerra mondiale, recita in un ruolo
cortometraggi: Juan Sin Seso (Giovanni
drammatico anche Charles Aznavour.
senza senno) di Luis A. Maisonet e
Nella stessa competizione figurano
Sucedió en Piedras Blancas (Avvenne
Rocco e i suoi fratelli di Luchino
a Piedras Blancas) di Benji Doniger
Visconti, insignito di un premio
regista che, nell’edizione della Mostra
speciale della Giuria, e The Apartment
del 1956, aveva vinto il Premio per il
di Billy Wilder per il quale Shirley
miglior cortometraggio a soggetto con
MacLaine riceverà la Coppa Volpi
Modesta, storia di una contadina che
come miglior attrice.
si ribella all’autoritarismo del marito
Tra le varie sezioni della Mostra
e convince altre donne del suo paese a
compare la retrospettiva dedicata al
fare lo stesso, fondando la Lega delle
Futurismo nel quadro dei movimenti
donne libere.
artistici d’avanguardia con film come
Nel 1960 vengono distribuiti ben 55
Aelita (1924) di Yakov Aleksandrovič
premi ufficiali, tra Leone d’oro, Leoni
Protazanov, Entr’acte (1924) di René
di San Marco, Premi speciali, Oselle,
Clair, Ballet Mécanique (1924) di
Diplomi speciali.
Fernand Léger e un omaggio a tre
23. Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea
dall’11 settembre al 4 ottobre
Organizzatore tecnico del Festival musicale Mario Labroca
Il Festival si inaugura a Palazzo Ducale
diretti rispettivamente da Bruno Maderna
l’11 settembre con un concerto speciale
e Bernhard Zimmermann.
per la celebrazione di Gustav Mahler nel
Il 27 settembre a Palazzo Ducale viene
centenario della nascita. Il maestro Lorin
presentato l’Orpheus, balletto in tre
Maazel dirige l’orchestra del Teatro La
quadri di Igor Strawinsky, diretto dallo
Fenice proponendo la Prima Sinfonia e
stesso autore con l’orchestra del Teatro
Das Lied von der Erde (il canto della terra)
La Fenice e un concerto sinfonico di
per contralto, tenore e orchestra.
musica contemporanea, sempre diretto da
Uno degli eventi più rilevanti resta lo
Strawinsky assieme a Robert Craft.
Spettacolo di Danza del 24 settembre
La Sala delle Colonne di Ca’ Giustinian
presso il Teatro La Fenice. Vengono
viene invece dedicata ai concerti di musica
proposte anche musiche di Luigi Nono: Il
da camera ed elettronica come quello del
canto sospeso, Fortner, Aulodia, Hartmann
23 settembre con musiche di Stockhausen
VII sinfonia, in prima esecuzione italiana
(Kontake, Refrain), di Camillo Togni
i Dialoghi per violoncello e orchestra di
Helian di Trakl op. 39, Varèse Ionisation,
Luigi Dallapiccola, in prima esecuzione
Kagel Transicion II, tutte opere in prima
assoluta. L’orchestra e il coro sono
esecuzione italiana.
quelli della Kölner Rundfunk-SinfonieOrchester e del Kölner Rundfunk-Chor,
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Trust on the Biennale
entretien avec Paolo Baratta
di Estelle Bories
Pubblicato su Artpress
http://www.artpress.com/article/10/06/2014/laquo-trust-on-the-biennale-raquo--entretien-avec-paolo-baratta1/29651
Per gentile concessione di Catherine Millet, direttrice di Artpress
Les modes dans le champ des grandes manifestations
était ainsi un moyen de renouer avec la dimension
possible toute manipulation mémorielle. Le choix de ne
de l'art contemporain (biennales, foires) n'ont cessé
sociale de l’architecture et de rompre avec une tendance
pas adopter une vision chronologique permet de résister
d'évoluer depuis les années 1990, passant des concepts
à la personnalisation (quand l’architecture devient un
à cette tendance.
d'hybridation et d'interactivité à des thématiques aussi
nom propre). Rem Koolhaas va s’attacher à une mise
variées que le "trash", la sous-culture (mainstream vs
en perspective plus historique. La prochaine biennale
underground) ou encore le multiculturalisme. Depuis
d'architecture porte le titre Fundamentals. Elle se
deux ans, la Biennale de Venise propose d'intégrer
déclinera en deux parties : "Elements of Architecture"
une nouvelle donne à la dimension événementielle
au pavillon central (Giardini) et "Monditalia" à la
caractéristique des grandes expositions internationales,
Corderie de l'Arsenal. À côté, il y aura des expositions
celle des archives. Le discours est largement porté
organisées dans les pavillons nationaux sous le thème
par son président (ancien ministre des privatisations)
"Absorbing Modernity 1914-2014", également choisi
Paolo Baratta2. À ses yeux, les archives sont devenues
par Rem Koolhaas. La présence des archives sera un
essentielles pour affirmer un point de vue sur l'art
moyen de questionner la représentation du monde, de
Szeemann.
contemporain, sur l'état de la culture sinon du monde.
plus en plus fractionné, et de comprendre comment
Oui, bien entendu, il existe des fils rouges qui
Cette réorientation est en partie laissée entre les
le glissement s’est opéré d’une approche basée sur des
permettent des passerelles entre les différentes
mains du « curateur-archiviste », qui prendrait la
valeurs nationales à l’émergence d’une vision commune
éditions de la biennale. Massimiliano Gioni s’est
suite du « commissaire-artiste » à la Harald Szeemann
de la modernité en architecture.
particulièrement intéressé à l’idée fixe et à la dimension
ou encore du « curateur-artiste-archiviste ». Mais
archives pour proposer un récit cohérent. Loin de là.
Les archives organisées de manière autonome, sous
forme de "trouvailles", donneraient à voir autrement
et prospective. L’élaboration de son histoire
sera-t’elle
l’occasion
approches
des
de
correspondance
d’établir
entre
les
des
jeux
différentes
commissaires ?
Certains
critiques ont notamment établi des parallèles
entre la démarche adoptée par Massimiliano
Gioni lors de la dernière Biennale et celle de
utopique qui guide la constitution d’une collection5.
attention, il n'est pas question de faire du commissaire
un "ennuyeux" historien mettant en perspective les
La Biennale a alterné entre vision rétrospective
La perception de ce qui a été accumulé à travers le
L'utilisation des archives par les architectes
semble aller parfaitement de soi et fait l’objet
d’un usage tant théorique que pratique.
Pensez-vous que dans les arts plastiques, il
temps remet en perspective cette partie obsessionnelle
qui était également l’un des thèmes chers à Harald
Szeemann6. La Biennale organisée par Bice Curriger
en 2011 (ILLUMInations) avait pour vocation de
l'art contemporain et serviraient par là, de support à la
puisse y avoir de telles affinités ?
revenir sur l’intemporalité de certains questions à
réflexion…
Oui, le rapport entre architecture et archives est très fort
travers le thème de la lumière. Ainsi, la place tenue
*
et il en est de même dans les arts plastiques4. Dans les
par les documents d’archives permettra de mieux
Lors de la précédente Biennale d'architecture
deux cas, l’utilisation des archives ne doit, bien entendu,
mesurer les effets de correspondances à travers le temps
pas revêtir une dimension de contrôle. Dans ce cas, elle
tout en permettant de mieux voir l’avenir. J’ai souvent
s’inscrit en porte à faux avec les archives policières ou
évoqué l’image de l’archive comme un télescope pour
judiciaires. La dimension totalitaire et totalisante doit
mieux envisager le futur. La dimension prospective
être écartée. L’utilisation des nouvelles technologies de
est essentielle. Le fait d’être animé par un esprit de
classification (fichage) à des fins de contrôle encore plus
recherche prouve que les archives peuvent être une
dont
le
directeur
artistique
était
David
Chipperfield (Common Ground), les archives
détenaient une place importante. Il semble
qu’il en soit de même cette année avec
Rem Koolhaas. Comment définiriez-vous les
différences et les similitudes entre les deux
poussé peut être une vraie menace pour l’individu.
« boîte à outils » fabuleuse pour prendre conscience de
architectes?
Le fait, ainsi, de changer de directeur artistique
la charge historique sans mettre à distance l’aspect plus
En dehors de l’aspect très technique et de l’image de
pratiquement à chaque biennale évite de tomber
émotionnel. La dimension ludique et de découverte
chevalier solitaire que l’un et l’autre peuvent présenter,
dans les travers d’une approche normative puisque
ouvre un champ de possibilité immense. Il faut revenir
presque à la Don Quichotte, ils entendent souligner,
nous devons prendre en considération la subjectivité
à une approche plus explicite surtout dans cette période
à l’inverse, la complexité de leur médium par rapport
et le changement permanent. Une nouvelle histoire
de désorientation. Notre objectif est de rejeter toute
au temps et à l’histoire. David Chipperfield avait pris
commence à chaque biennale. Aussi, la manière dont
tentation de centralisation, de limiter le contrôle sur la
comme point de départ de Common Ground3, la
un commissaire est amené à utiliser l’archive est plus
production de la mémoire historique, en multipliant les
dimension de partage et des valeurs collectives. C’est à
directe et plus expérimentale.
intermédiaires.
ce titre qu’il avait intégré des archives du monde entier
Le projet éditorial qui est en train d’être développé
au sein de la Biennale. L’introduction de ces archives
autour de l’histoire de la Biennale évacuera autant que
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Qu’avez-vous contre les historiens ?
Je n’ai rien contre les historiens étant moi même
un passionné d’histoire ! En revanche, j’ai vraiment
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Comment intégrer, par le biais des archives,
NOTE
la présence de pays non démocratiques au
1. Nous tenons à remercier l’équipe de la Biennale de
la question des relations diplomatiques et
sein de la Biennale ? La question est très
Venise, le personnel de l’ASAC et Nicoletta Damioli pour
lorsque j’ai travaillé à l’archivage de documents
française…
le temps qu’ils nous ont consacré.
émanant d’une banque de crédit à prêt moyen qui
Oui, je vois… Elle très française en effet ! Dans le
avait servi à l’industrialisation de l’Italie. Je dois être
passé, et tout spécialement en 1968, on a cultivé
2. Paolo Baratta est né à Milan en 1939. Il est Directeur
moi-même vigilant à maintenir à distance le pouvoir
l’idée que les institutions culturelles pouvaient
d'organismes bancaires dans les années 1980, il devient
qu’elles donnent à celui qui est amené à les utiliser
être utiles dans la lutte pour la liberté7. Pourtant,
ministre des privatisations en 1993 puis ministre du
et, dans mon cas, à les valoriser. Le regroupement des
quand la liberté a été mise au premier plan, cela a
archives au sein d’une institution comme la Biennale
abouti, dans beaucoup de cas, à la destruction des
de Venise ne doit pas aboutir à l’élaboration d’une
institutions culturelles. Par ailleurs, il serait facile
vision déterministe et centralisée. Le respect de ma
de faire des déclarations et des démentis. Il semble
mission ne doit pas déboucher sur une rigidité ni sur
plus utile de revenir sur le fait que la Biennale
l’autoréférence.
de Venise a présenté Jafar Panahi au festival du
C’est pour éviter cela que le recours aux archives de la
film et de nombreuses femmes artistes boycottées
considération les attentes et les préoccupations communes
part des commissaires trouve toute sa pertinence. Le
par leur pays. Je rappellerai aussi que l’œuvre
à un moment d’ « anxiété économique globale ».
public qui se rend à la biennale ne sait pas ce qu’il va
d’Ai Weiwei était représentée dans le pavillon
y trouver. La place de la découverte, de la trouvaille,
allemand cette année alors qu’il demeure en
est donc essentielle et va à l’encontre du phénomène
résidence surveillée en Chine. N’oubliez pas que la
dans la reconstitution de l’exposition culte de 1969 à
de réification habituellement associée aux archives.
Biennale se compose de trois parties : les pavillons
Berne, When Attitudes become Form, à la Fondation
L’aspect expérimental est très important, il renforce le
des pays participants (des États reconnus par la
lien avec le public.
République Italienne) ; la "Mostra internazionale"
pris conscience des dangers de d’une classification
de Telecom Italia depuis le 6 mai 2004. Administrateur
commerce extérieur. Il est ensuite nommé ministre des
travaux publics et de l'environnement. Président de la
Biennale de Venise de 1998 à 2000, il occupe de nouveau
ce poste depuis 2008.
3. Common Ground, thème de la Biennale d’architecture
de 2012, se proposait de faire le point sur les grandes
créations individuelles architecturales tout en prenant en
4. Il convient de souligner ici l’implication du directeur
actuel de la Biennale d’architecture 2014, Rem Koolhaas
Prada de Venise en 2013. La team curatoriale formée
autour du commissaire Germano Celant associait aussi le
photographe Thomas Demand.
dont le curateur, nommé par la Biennale, se
En dehors de cet aspect d’ouverture et
de méfiance à l’encontre d’une vision de
l’archive comme preuve déterminante, existe-
t-il d’autres aspects qui leur donnent une
charge de l’organisation, et enfin les événements
collatéraux proposés par des institutions à but non
lucratif. C’est le commissaire qui valide la valeur
5. Massimiliano Gioni a dirigé la 55ème Biennale
d’art l’année dernière avec comme thème « Le Palais
encyclopédique ». On comprend ici l’ambiguïté du
terme « archive » qui dans le cas de cette manifestation
artistique de ces derniers. Bien qu’organisées
se confondait avec la notion de collection, car il s’agissait
à l’extérieur de la Biennale officielle, ils sont
de représenter des « artistes-encyclopédistes », dont les
Biennale ?
référencés dans le catalogue, bénéficient du logo
œuvres relevaient clairement de la collection.
Le recours aux archives et l’élargissement du hic et
et de la communication entourant l’événement.
nunc qu’elle autorise est un moyen de lutter contre
Nous avons souvent organisé des expositions qui
6. Harald Szeemann a été nommé deux fois de suite (cas
ce qui représente à mes yeux deux dangers majeurs
« représentaient » des communautés ethniques
Venise, en 1999 pour « d’APERTutto » et en 2001 pour
pour une institution culturelle comme la Biennale :
ou politiques non reconnus par la représentation
« Plateau of Mankind ». Il avait été aussi, avec A. Bonito-
le populisme et le conformisme. S’agissant du
officielle. La structure même de la Biennale permet
dernier terme, l’élargissement temporel conféré
de mener une diplomatie culturelle représentative
7. Paolo Baratta se réfère ici à la crise de 1968, où le boycotte
par les archives permet de s’écarter d’un type de
du pluralisme de la communauté artistique8. de la Biennale par les artistes a amené une restructuration
communication immédiate. Une relation de confiance
Je crois que cette mise au point permet d’attester
de l'institution publique. Votée par le Parlement le 26
doit être maintenue afin de développer l’esprit
que l’on peut se fier à la Biennale. Les archives
d’indépendance et de transmission. S’agissant du
contribueront certainement à le rappeler.
pertinence particulière dans le cadre de la
populisme, il concerne tout particulièrement les pays occidentaux. Il est le résultat de deux phénomènes. La
crise économique, qui, devenue politique, débouche
finalement sur le refus de revenir sur la complexité
des institutions et des règles nécessaires pour concilier
la liberté individuelle et l'intérêt général. Mais la
pensée populiste a aussi été cultivée dans les années
de bien-être que nous avons connues dans le passé.
On a été conduit à l'abus systématique et à la mise
en place d’une communication en continue. Et cette
Oliva, le créateur de la section Aperto en 1980.
juillet 1973, la loi (n°438) pour "une nouvelle régulation
de l'autonomie de la Biennale de Venise" a enclenché
une réforme du comité. Auparavant, celui-ci était formé
de commissaires nationaux qui choisissaient les œuvres
Les archives seront à nouveau, cette année,
mises à l’honneur. On le voit avec le Lion
d’or attribué à Phyllis Lambert, fondatrice
du Centre canadien d’architecture, pour
son œuvre en tant que « gardienne du
patrimoine architectural ». Pouvez-vous
nous dire la manière dont les archives
entreront en ligne de compte lors de la
prochaine biennale d'art dirigée par Okwui
communication à des fins notamment marketing
Enwezor9 ?
agit comme une machine qui transforme une réalité
Il m’est impossible de dévoiler ce que le nouveau
complexe en une réalité prémâchée, prête à être
directeur artistique de la Biennale va choisir. La
ingérée. Tout cela détourne encore de la réalité. C’est
seule chose que je peux cependant évoquer est
ainsi que nous avons développé, à l'intérieur de nos
que la question de l’obsession mémorielle sera
sociétés, le populisme, frère jumeau du conformisme.
certainement structurante.
Les archives et l'histoire nous aide à élargir la
Propos recueillis par Estelle Bories et Marianne
"plateforme" d'observation.
Le Galliard
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unique !) pour diriger la Biennale d’art contemporain de
et attribuaient les prix, impliquant forcément des jeux
de pouvoir par des alliances diplomatiques. Désormais,
le comité "démocratique" est composé de 19 membres
provenant du gouvernement, d'organisations locales, de
syndicats et de représentants du personnel. Ces membres
élisent le Président ainsi que les directeurs de chaque
section (art, danse, architecture..). Le Président, en suivant
la proposition des directeurs, élit ensuite le jury qui va
remettre les prix.
8. Ce positionnement rejoint celui adopté par d’autres
directeurs d’institutions culturelles. L’idée selon laquelle
derrière les paillettes et les mondanités peuvent émerger
des figures d’artistes dissidents est également soutenue
par le président du Festival de Cannes de 2001 à 2014,
Gilles Jacob. 9. Okwui Enwezor, Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in
Contemporary Art., New York, The International Center of Photography, 2008. Rappelons que le nouveau directeur
artistique reste dans une approche très critique de l’archive
comme outil de contrôle et de normalisation.
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Steve Reich
Leone d'Oro Biennale Musica 2014
conversazione con Oreste Bossini – September 21st, 2014
La Biennale Musica ha conferito quest’anno il Leone d’oro alla carriera al compositore
L’homme armé? L’homme armé was [singing the tune] “L’homme, l’homme, l’homme
americano Steve Reich. L’onorificenza è stata consegnata al musicista il 21 settembre
armé, da da da di da di”. Beautiful French folk song. And all these very important
scorso dal Presidente della Biennale Paolo Baratta e dal Direttore artistico del settore
composers felt obliged to make this the cantus firmus, the basis of the Mass of the
Musica Ivan Fedele con una breve cerimonia, che si è svolta prima del concerto
Catholic church over a period of several hundred years. Jumpin’ up to Haydn’s 104
dell’Orchestra del Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari in cui Jonathan Stockhammer ha diretto
Symphony – great masterpiece from London Symphonies – [singing the tune], here is
due lavori di Reich, City Life e Triple Quartet.
an Austrian drinking song. Go up to Beethoven. You all know the first movement of
the Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony [singing the tune], folk song again. You can’t really
Nel pomeriggio Steve Reich ha incontrato il pubblico nella Sala delle Colonne di Ca’
separate Béla Bartók from the Balcanian folk music that he listened to, recorded,
Giustinian, raccontando il proprio percorso artistico sollecitato dalle domande del
notated, studied. And I don’t mean just his folk songs, that’s obvious, but I mean his
giornalista e critico musicale Oreste Bossini. Di seguito pubblichiamo il resoconto
string quartets, that is abstract music, it is impossible to say this is a folk song and this
della conversazione, preceduta dall’ascolto di tre movimenti tratti da un nuovo lavoro
is not. They are just part of him, he becomes at one with his music.
di Reich, Radio Rewrite, registrato per l’etichetta discografica Nonesuch.
Igor Stravinskij told a few fibs for political reasons, but really the truth is, if you look
at Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring and The Firebird, that his music is filled – much
OB Abbiamo ascoltato i primi tre movimenti di Radio Rewrite, una composizione
to Stravinskij’s credit – with Russian folksongs, which he heard as a young man of
del 2012 di Steve Reich. Il brano in realtà si compone di 5 movimenti, secondo
course. In my country, Charles Ives was an organist, he played the organ in a church,
una forma ad arco abbastanza semplice, che alterna un movimento veloce e uno
and the tunes that he played were kind of like the popular songs of those days. And
lento, secondo lo schema fast slow fast slow fast. Steve Reich ha usato spesso nelle sue
if you listen to Three Places in New England, and other masterpieces by Charles Ives,
composizioni questo tipo di simmetria formale, che per altro è stata privilegiata nella
you will hear these hymn tunes appearing in his works. George Gershwin: is he one
musica del Novecento da compositori come Béla Bartók per esempio.
of our greatest songwriters or is he one of our greatest composers? He is both. Kurt
Si potrebbe partire da qui, dal racconto di questo lavoro, uno degli ultimi - l’ultimo
Weill studied composition with Busoni, he was classically trained. Time came for him
s’intitola Quartet - perché ci permette di entrare agevolmente dentro il mondo
to write an opera and he said, “Well, I don’t want an orchestra. I want a banjo, I want
e la forma mentis per così dire di Steve Reich. Quando è circolata la notizia che
trap drums, a saxophone.” “How about a big diva du jour?” “No. I know this woman
Reich stava scrivendo un pezzo per la London Sinfonietta basato sulla musica dei
can’t really sing, her name is Lotte Lenya, but I think she’ll do it...” Masterpiece, The
Radiohead, subito qualcuno ha cominciato a commentare: “Ecco, adesso a Steve Reich
Threepenny Opera... It is the Weimar Republic, and it is on the border between what
piace la musica dei Radiohead!”. In realtà questa è una maniera molto ingannevole
he heard on the street and what he heard as a composer.
di presentare le cose. La storia è un’altra. Steve Reich aveva scritto un pezzo per la
The normal situation in the West is as I outlined it. When I went to music school, in
London Sinfonietta, ma non era soddisfatto. Avevano provato il lavoro a Londra, ma
the late 1950s and early 1960s, that window between the street and the concert hall
la musica risultava troppo caotica, un complesso contrappunto per quindici strumenti
had been slammed shut, I think partly as a result of Schönberg, Berg and Webern
con altre parti strumentali preregistrate. Insomma, non funzionava. Nel frattempo
and their followers, though there are exceptions, as Pierrot Lunaire. By and large there
Reich era andato a Cracovia, per partecipare a un festival in cui il chitarrista dei
was a separation, and this separation continued, maybe it began to dissolve when
Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood, interpretava una delle composizioni più note di Steve
Stockhausen’s picture appeared on the front of Sgt. Pepper. But this separation began
Reich, Electric Counterpoint, scritta nel 1987 per Pat Metheney. Il lavoro prevede
to break down in my own generation. I was born in 1936 and people like Philip Glass,
una chitarra elettrica che suona dal vivo e una base preregistrata con dieci parti di
Arvo Pärt, John Adams and Terry Riley were all born in roughly the same period
chitarra elettrica e due parti di basso elettrico. L’interpretazione di Jonny Greenwood
and here you have a situation where people want to bring in what motivated them
è piaciuta molto a Steve Reich e in quell’occasione si sono conosciuti. A quel punto
to become composers in the first place. What motivated me to become a composer
la musica di Greenwood ha incuriosito Reich, che è andato a cercare su internet
was hearing The Rite of Spring when I was 14 years old, shortly after hearing the
le canzoni dei Radiohead. Un paio gli sono sembrate particolarmente interessanti,
Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 and then hearing bebop musicians like Charlie Parker,
Everything in its right place e Jigsaw falling into place. Reich ha preso questi due
Miles Davies and drummer Kenny Clarke. I wanted to be Kenny Clarke, but it didn’t
materiali musicali e li ha sviluppati, trasformandoli da canzoni per una rock band a
turn out that way. Kenny Clarke was already Kenny Clarke. But this generation, my
composizione per un ensemble di strumenti tradizionali come la London Sinfonietta.
generation, felt that they had to bring this back into an atmosphere of, let us say, an
Come si vede si tratta di un lavoro di riutilizzo dei materiali, una prassi comune fin
old style that was dying, and the dying old style was basically German Romanticism.
dai fin dai tempi di Bach. Mi pare che Lei abbia cercato di inserirsi nel solco di una
That’s not a criticism of Schönberg, who was a great composer, neither of Boulez or
tradizione molto antica, è così?
Stockhausen. It is simply a fact of the way styles rise and then they decay and are
SR. Yes! I think that we sometimes lose sight of the reality that in Western classical
replaced by something else. It happened before, at the end of the Renaissance, for
music great composers, starting at least in Middle Ages and on up through today,
example, when counterpoint got so complicated that the Baroque period emerged
have always, in a sense, had the window open between the concert hall and the street.
with clear chords, with clear harmonies, and an ability to improvise. The same after
So specifically, starting with Dufay in the Renaissance all the way up to Palestrina,
Johann Sebastian Bach, who brought a style to such perfection, to such greatness
you have these Missa de L’homme armé. A Mass was in the Renaissance the highest
that even his sons knew that Dad has finished it, and they began something much
form of composition, it was like Beethoven writing a symphony. And what is
simpler, what we call homophonic music. Music with chords and melody, which leads
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to Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, and a whole new style of music which then goes
abbastanza semplice. Reich non usa in genere un vocabolario armonico molto
all the way to Wagner and to Schönberg and so on. So this is not something new. As
complesso, contrappunti particolarmente complicati. Spesso lavora su rapporti tonali
a matter of fact, the young composer David Lang, good friend of mine, one of the
elementari, per esempio tonica, dominante, sottodominante. Questi vecchi vocaboli
founders of Bang on a Can, a multi-faceted contemporary music organization based
però riescono a essere recuperati in una dimensione completamente nuova, questo è
in New York, once said to me “I envy you when you were born.” And what he meant
l’aspetto geniale della musica di Steve Reich. Mi viene in mente quello che poco prima
was that I was born at a time when it was necessary and possible to do this. You can’t
Lei ha detto a proposito di Kenny Clarke, questo grande batterista, che non è stato il
just say “Hey kids! Let’s have a new style of music!”, that’s childish. “Hey kids! Let’s
più grande virtuoso della storia del jazz. Max Roach e Art Blakey erano sicuramente
have a new religion!”, that’s not how human life works. These things happen at a
strumentisti capaci di fare cose molto più esplosive, molto più spettacolari dal punto
certain time in history when something, as I said, is dying and people just feel like
di vista tecnico. Però Kenny Clarke, con il vocabolario ritmico abbastanza ridotto in
there’s something we’ve got to clean up: “Give me a broom! This place is a mess!”. If I
suo possesso, riusciva sempre a dare l’impressione immediata dell’originalità della sua
wasn’t born, if Pärt or Riley wasn’t born, somebody would have come along and done
musica. Ascoltando la sua maniera di suonare riconoscevi subito “Questo è Kenny
that, because it needed to be done. Radio Rewrite is merely one small example of that.
Clarke!”. Non so se il paragone possa essere accettato da Steve Reich.
OB. Visto che stiamo parlando di musica, rimaniamo su un lavoro come Radio
SR. I think this is exaggerated, in a way! Harmonically, if you listen to The Desert
Rewrite. Mi sembra che il motivo per cui Lei ha scelto queste due canzoni dei
Music (1983), or Sextet which followed, you’ll find a much more chromatic harmony.
Radiohead è per un certo tipo di qualità armonica, per certe caratteristiche
If you listen to the beginning of Daniel Variations, you hear a chord that is really
dell’armonia. Questo forse ci aiuta a capire quanto sia stato importante per Lei, e
very very dissonant. I played you a piece which is very very consonant, and I love
più in generale per la sua generazione di musicisti americani, aver riportato in primo
it, but it isn’t the only thing that I have ever done. I have used chromatic harmony
piano il problema dell’armonia.
in a number of pieces. Kenny Clarke... I was 14 years old and I had never heard any
music before Haydn, and no music after Wagner, so hearing Bach was a complete
SR. When I was listening as a student to Schönberg, Berg and Webern and then,
revelation. Hearing Stravinskij and bebop was a complete revelation! I heard popular
much later, to the earlier works of Boulez and Stockhausen, three things are missing.
music of the day, and yes, there were two main bebop drummers: Max Roach, great
There doesn’t seem to be any harmonic centre, there doesn’t seem to be anything that
drummer, and Kenny Clarke, also a great drummer. The difference between them
you could possibly whistle or sing, there was no perceptible rhythm. Despite the fact
was that Max Roach was a more virtuosic player, he could do more things, and Kenny
that Schönberg said “in fifty years every postman will be whistling my tunes”, in over
Clarke had a magic quality of time. I also explained to you that Kenny Clarke was
a hundred years there’s not a postman in sight. It’s not because Schönberg wasn’t a
also a great innovator, which I didn’t even know. One of percussionists in my own
great composer, it’s because he had a strange delusion about what he was doing and
ensemble, Russell Hartenberger by name, was doing some research into Kenny Clark.
you couldn’t tap your foot. Now, if you remove from any music, Western or non-
It turns out that any jazz drummer before Kenny Clarke, I mean in the 1930s, played
Western, any sense of what Stravinskij called the “polar attraction” of sound, then you
like this [crossing arms], they keep time on the hi-hat and throw in accents on their
have in a sense thrown the baby out with the bath water. I’m not talking necessarily
snare drum with the right. Kenny Clarke he put his right hand on the right cymbal
about the authentic perfect cadence at the basis of Western music, but some way of
and he invented for those playing jazz drums “din din didin, din didin...”. When I
harmonic attraction. It’s not just making something new, it’s taking out essentials.
started studying drums in the 1950s I thought that pattern fell down from heaven.
The harmonic series appears in nature, the intervals of the octave and the fifth appear
You know, it was just the way you play the right cymbal. But it didn’t fall down from
in every music all over the planet. So, what you say is certainly true, but it’s only part
heaven, Kenny Clarke invented it. So it’s not a surprise that he played it with this
of the picture. In other words, not only harmony, but rhythm was disregarded and
floating. It’s as if the entire band rode effortlessly on this buoyant time. That struck
it was to these missing basics that I and others in my generation returned to. To
me as a great gift that he had, which he could then support others with. I don’t know
answer this particular... One of tunes is called Everything in its right place, from Kid
if any of my pieces have it, but I think that it floats over some of the early pieces like
A album. It’s the most complicated three-chord rock around, right? What got me
Drumming and maybe in another sense the constant pulse of Music for 18 Musicians.
about the tune is that. I don’t know if Jonny Greenwood really wrote it, but I saw
I rarely think about Kenny Clarke. But outside of that it’s something which really
a video of him singing at piano and he was completely into it. Now, everything in
belongs to my early teens and it certainly was formative. And he’s certainly a great
Western music can be reduced in a sense to “one five one” cadence, every Beethoven
drummer.
symphony. If you wanted to say, “well, what’s the nitty-gritty, the very very basic?”. It’s
OB. Tornando un momento indietro, a proposito di manipolazione del materiale
the dominant going to the tonic, and then all the subdivisions of the harmonic path.
musicale, e in particolare di manipolatori di musica popolare, ci sarebbe un altro
This line – [singing the tune] “Everything...” – was just it struck me so, you hit it
nome, oltre a quelli fatti prima da Steve Reich, che non dovrebbe essere dimenticato,
on the head. So I used that phrase, that melodic phrase. The harmony is so powerful
ed è quello di Luciano Berio naturalmente. Berio è stato anche uno dei maestri di
in that tune that I tried to reverse the order of the chords. The other tune, “Jigsaw
Reich in California, al Mills College, negli anni Sessanta. Questo mi offre lo spunto
Falling into Place”, it was the harmony which you hear at the very beginning of my
per chiedere qualcosa sul loro rapporto. Berio l’ha incoraggiata a concepire in maniera
piece somewhat elaborated. What pops up either clearly or not so clearly, if you heard
così libera la musica?
the whole piece, it’s fast slow fast slow fast, which is “Jigsaw – Everything – Jigsaw
SR. Indirectly, yes. I first heard Luciano Berio in New York City while I was a student
– Everything – Jigsaw”. In the Jigsaw sections, harmony is either obvious or not so
at the Juilliard School, and Berio gave a concert downtown at the New School. The
obvious. But, yes, I think a lot of musicians in my generation, and in generations
major piece in the program was a piece of his called Circles, it’s a setting of the poet
that followed, some of them have picked up classic passacaglia lines, the descending
E. E. Cummings. The first word is stinging, like a bee. He was then married to Cathy
scale lines that appear throughout the early baroque and before; they have revitalised
Berberian, the great singer, who was his first wife, and she sang “SSStiiiiiIIIngING”
them and brought them back. So, I think that what we did is not a revolution, it’s a
and then she’s holding at the “ssss”. He’s got a percussionist with sandpaper blocks,
restoration. I would say, a restoration of harmony and rhythm in a new way.
shhhhh, rubbing them together. And I’m thinking: “Wow, he’s imitating the sound
OB. Ecco, restaurazione del ritmo e dell’armonia in una maniera nuova. Mi sembra
of her consonants with the percussion instrument. Thank you very much.” I was
un concetto interessante, ancora da approfondire. In effetti nella musica di Steve
getting a lesson right away and I wasn’t even his student. I left the Juilliard in 1961
Reich, non soltanto in questo pezzo, ma anche nella sua musica precedente, si vede
and I went out to the West Coast. He was at Mills college, I worked with him from
come l’autore riesca a conferire una nuova freschezza a un linguaggio armonico
1961 to 1963, I guess, and he was at that time working on a piece called Omaggio
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a Joyce, as in James Joyce. He was taking Finnegans Wake, which no one can even
armonico. Una staticità che diventava allo stesso tempo di enorme complessità, grazie
read, and he’d have Cathy Berberian read parts of it, then he’d cut it up. This is in
al fatto che le pulsazioni ritmiche si sfasavano poco alla volta in maniera lentissima,
the days of tape, do you remember tape? You could actually cut up the plastic tape,
creando quindi dei contrappunti ritmici assolutamente imprevedibili, o per meglio
and he would make this very abstract kind of all these phonemes put together, out
dire incalcolabili nella musica occidentale, che ha un’origine matematica e quindi
of her readings. He also, as a teacher, said to us as a class: “Ok, I’m going to play
sottoposta a un ferreo criterio di divisibilità.
two recordings of Karlheinz Stockhausen. The first one is called Electronic Studies.
SR. Yes. You left out two important names, one of them is Béla Bartók and the other
The second one is called Gesang der Jünglinge. Why? Because it’s a kid’s voice.” And
is Perotin. Perotin is from the XII century, the School of Notre Dame in Paris. You
right away my ear went... the voice is attracting my ear. Basically, what I think that
all go to your music dictionaries, if you don’t know who that is. If you’re lucky, get a
I got from Berio – very very far from what Berio himself did – was the idea that if
hold of the recording on ECM made by Paul Hillier of the four-part Organa, and
I’m going to make electronic music, I don’t want to use electronic sounds, I want to
if that doesn’t give you a boost, too bad! So, John Coltrane. John Coltrane had an
use sounds from this world and, particularly, humans’ speech. And indeed, if any of
enormous influence on me, you are absolutely right. I first started listening to John
you know my own It’s Gonna Rain, this proved to be very fruitful, and it went on
Coltrane while I was at Juilliard, in about 1960–1961, and then when I moved out
years later into pieces like Different Trains, where I took the human speaking voice
to the West Coast I started to hear him regularly. Berio during the day, Coltrane
and combine it with musical instruments. And this led to The Cave and Three Tales
during the night. Not a bad way to spend your life. I must have heard him at least
which was my contribution to opera. It’s not an opera, it’s music theater, but whereby
fifty times in San Francisco, I heard him play with Eric Dolphy. Now, the piece that
video tape interviews done by Beryl Korot, the great video artist whose work is on
you are referring to is Africa/Brass. What’s significant about Africa/Brass is that it’s
view at the Tate Modern as we speak, are being projected on five different screens
about 16–17 minutes long and it’s all on the low E of the double bass. You know
and a whole ensemble of musicians – woodwinds, percussions, strings, keyboards –
how jazz musicians talk to each other. “Hey man, what’s the changes? What’s the
are playing their speech melody. Sometimes when we speak, we almost sing. Kids’
changes to Africa/Brass?” “E.” “No, no, no... what’s the changes?” “E.” “E??? E for 16
larynxes aren’t too developed. When I was in England a guy played me a tape and
minutes?!” Now that sounds like a one-way ticket to boredom. Thank you very much,
his kid said: “Daddy, I want an ice cream!”, and it was so perfectly melodic that he
I gotta leave now. So how does he make it work? Well, first of all he was working
could have made a piece, but he didn’t. Speech melody is something that’s human
with Eric Dolphy, who was a brilliant alto sax player and who introduced the bass
reality. Janácek has nothing to do with our story so far… I was giving a little talk at
clarinet into jazz and from whom I stole the idea of using the bass clarinet in Music
the Juilliard School of Music shortly after I wrote Different Trains, which uses speech
for 18 Musicians. Those wonderful froggy sounds that are in Music for 18 Musicians
melody, and there was an elderly European gentleman, obviously an elderly faculty
are a direct steal from Eric Dolphy. What Dolphy did for Coltrane, since Africa/Brass
person that I did not know. He raised his hand and he said to me “Do you know
does have a large brass section, was that he wrote glissandos for the French horn,
the writings of Leós Janácek?”. I said: “No, I’m terribly sorry, I don’t”. “Well, you
which sound like elephants coming through the jungle. Then Coltrane himself is
should!” So I thought: “This man is telling me something” and I bought the book,
playing, mostly soprano saxophone. Sometimes he’s playing just gorgeous melodic
called The Uncollected Writings of Leós Janácek. One of the articles is all about speech
material, sometimes he is just screaming through the instrument, pure noise. And
melody. He says some beautiful things, he says that speech melody is like the water-
more, in terms of rhythm, there is Elvin Jones, the drummer, who was probably
lily on top of the water and its roots go down right into the human soul. I mean,
the most polyrhythmic, most complicated drummer to play jazz, or he’s certainly
that’s a beautiful and true thought. I mean, think of a recording of your voice and a
a candidate for that. So, if you put together timbral variety, rhythmic complexity,
photo of you. Which is more real? Who’s to say? Janácek used to walk around with a
melodic invention, then you can stay rooted on E and its E minor for 16–17 minutes
music notebook, writing down not what people sang, but what they said. They were
and be riveted, because what you’re not getting harmonically, you are getting from
speech melodies and then these speech notes would appear in his operas. He even
all these other musical factors. They are highlighted and accentuated by the fact that
transcribed a train conductor in Czechoslovakia, when there was a Czechoslovakia,
the harmony is relatively static. It isn’t completely static, it’s constantly changing its
in ’20s. Every educated person had to learn German and Janácek, being a nationalist,
voicings and so on and so forth. This was a kind of object lesson that was in the air
hated that. And he compared the way this train conductor announced the station first
in the 1960s. You all know The Beatles were listening to Indian music; they weren’t
in German, with a major seventh, and then in Czech in his beautiful broken triad.
the only ones. Phil Glass was listening to Indian music, Terry Riley was listening to
So the idea of transcribing the way people speak and seeing that as part of the music.
Indian music, I was very interested in West African drumming. I went to Ghana
Why is it here in Italy, in your country, “Ooo-peee-raa”? Of course opera is going to
and studied drumming there. I went to study Balinese gamelan, playing with two
come from a language like that, while rock and roll is going to come from English or
different kinds of gamelan on the West coast in the United States, in the summers of
German. Because languages really do contribute to the musicality of the composers
1973 and 1974. In Motown label in that period there was a guy by the name of Junior
who write them. It’s just in our guts.
Walker. He released a single called Shotgun. What was distinctive about it, was that
OB. What about Wagner?
the bass line went on waiting for the change, but there isn’t any change. The whole
SR. Wagner was a German, to the core!
side of a record. Usually, every pop tune is based on a form A-B-A, and then you’ve
OB. Un pezzetto alla volta stiamo mettendo insieme i vari pezzi del mondo musicale
got the release, and you go back. No, just this repeating bass line. So here you have
da cui proviene Steve Reich. Ci sono alcuni tasselli, però, che ancora mancano, uno in
music coming in from non-Western sources recorded on the Nonesuch label, which
particolare piuttosto importante, John Coltrane. Possiamo forse indicare una triade,
I’m signed with, and many other labels. You have live musicians like Ravi Shankar
Bach, John Coltrane e Stravinskij, per capire quali sono le radici della musica di Steve
touring around and playing. You have recordings of Balinese music, West African
Reich. Il Coltrane dell’ultima fase, naturalmente, quello dei primi Anni Sessanta,
music, other forms of Indian music from the South and North, of Japanese gagaku
non il Coltrane bebop. L’ultimo Coltrane riusciva a creare delle strutture musicali
and on and on and on. Harmonic stasis was in the air. So if musicians have their
di incredibile pienezza, rimanendo ancorato su un singolo accordo per una quantità
headphones on and their antennae up, and they are listening to the same stations,
di tempo che ai jazzisti di allora sembrava inverosimile. Lui e i suoi musicisti erano
they are going to receive these signals and to start thinking about these sources,
capaci d’improvvisare per venti minuti su un accordo di mi maggiore. Era una cosa
which are so different, so diametrically opposed to Schönberg, Berg, Webern, Boulez,
a quel tempo impressionante e rivoluzionaria. Non so se questo tipo di approccio
Stockhausen and even Berio – although Berio was a very flexible case and we’ll have
musicale abbia in qualche modo influenzato la tecnica che Reich stava sviluppando
to put him in a special compartment. So, yes, John Coltrane was part of a harmonic
nella seconda metà degli Anni Sessanta, il phasing, che consiste nel rendere sempre
reality that was happening particularly in America, and that is maybe why the kind
più complesso il linguaggio ritmico rimanendo quasi fermo dal punto di vista
of music that is called “minimalism” arose in America at that time.
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