CARAVAN , concert for one spectator A performance by G wen R ouger The experimentation happens in a small caravan. As a real invitation for a musical journey, this caravan plays with the evocation of freedom and the exploration of wild spaces and while provoking a very singular intimacy. A home' away from home', a return to the nomad that dozes in the depths of each of us. The concert takes place in a public space. The caravan is small and can be folded. Thus, it can provide a space within another space, for instance in a barn, an exhibition space, a reception hall, an art gallery, a big living-room, a library; but also, outside in a mall, an airport, a train station, a street, a square. The spectator experiences the concert inside the caravan with the pianist while the passers-by can glimpse inside the caravan through only one window. Maybe, by chance, they will have the opportunity to hear few sounds from far away. They become slight voyeurs, stirring their curiosity.
Inside the caravan, everything is humble. On the left of the entrance, a table and two facing bench seats, on the right an upright piano and two chairs next to each other. The spectator knocks at the door. The pianist invites the spectator to sit down at the table, and starts to read a text from the score from which she is going to perform only for her/him. In this text, the composer speaks to the pianist: “...Aim to listen as actively and as sensitively as possible. You may make 'mistakes', though if each and every decision is undertaken in a sensitive, thoughtful and critical manner it is not possible to perceive incorrectly...”. The text slightly modified, allows the pianist to direct the text towards the spectator, creating immediately a real complicity and a common responsibility. The text is finished, the pianist moves towards the piano and invites the spectator to seat down next to her. She asks her/him to turn the pages of the score. She pays “Collector” by Charlie Sdraulig. This piece is a choreography of hands discovering the sonorous landscape of the keyboard. The score is not completely fixed, it is based on playing rules in which the pianist must adapt all the time, depending on the acoustic, on the piano and the morphology of her hands. The execution of the piece is always different. In “Collector”, the composer shows intimacy and reveals the gesture of the musician who tries, in her fragility, to be one with her instrument. The listener is sitting very close. A mirror game is created between the two protagonists.The music ends and the pianist invites her guest to leave the space. ‘Caravan’ places the audience at the heart of the performance. Through creating this specific concert situation, the artist aims to question the spectator on their status as such.
Spectator testimonies: « I remember very well the warm, intense and intimate ambiance in the caravan, the concentrated and friendly reception you gave me. The text you read to me and the way you did it touched me deeply, it was like a personal message in a protected and somehow sacred space. Sitting next to you in front of the piano was a very special experience. I did not dare to look at you all the time and only glanced at you. Feeling how your body and your mind connected with the piano, I tried to hear something beyond the silent mechanic touch of the piano keys, but my imagination was too poor. I was just captured by the intensity and concentration of your silent play and by my concern to not miss the moment when to turn the page. » Silke Pfluger «...In such proximity, the slightest gesture of the pianist, the movement of her fingers, a hesitation of the wrist, a restrained breath, the bust that inclines slightly towards the keyboard, the movement of a foot that is preparing to touch the pedal, the slightest gesture, thus upsets the balance established between the instrument, the performer and the listener, who perceives in a exacerbated manner. Introduced in this hyper-sensitive zone, the spectator hears everything in this composition despite it emitting no sound apart from those produced by the mechanics of the piano: the sliding of a finger on a key, the felted sound of the hammer moving, the mechanism that responds with a very slight delay...» Jean-Baptiste Joly «These are moments of stillness, of being consumed by a deep, unknown darkness at the depths of an ocean, knowing, only fleetingly, that mighty waves are crashing some unknown shores. Sometimes the smallest gestures make the loudest sounds. » Imran Ali Khan. «...I am looking at her hands, her fingers on the keyboard, I am taking part in this little moment with wonder. We are in the caravan and in the caravan, the artist creates a little bubble. A bubble of high concentration and intimacy, in which a very special 'musical' experience is possible. In this bubble: the two of us, the musical piece hidden, mixed with extra noises, and the snail – in the caravan. (…) I turn the page. I play a part. I have a responsibility like her. She requested my engagment as a spectator. I let myself be tempted, I took my place...» Sarah Israel
Set-up and organisation of the performance: 'Caravan' can be situated in various public spaces, inside or outside (see below the dimensions of the caravan) The surroundings need to be quiet and an assistant is required to welcome the spectator and to survey people watching outside of the caravan. The performance can consist of a full day and continue for up to four consecutive days. Each performance is 10 to 20 minutes. There are 3 performances per hour, with a maximum of 5 hours a day, with break of 30 mn each hour. A booking procedure will designate the spectator a day/time to attend the performance. Time to set up: half a day, time to dismantle: 1 hour. Caravan dimensions: Dimensions folded: Dimensions unfolded: Width: 1,55 m Width: 2 m Length: 2 m Length: 3 m Height: 99 cm Height: 1,90 m Technical needs: Small upright rental piano. The weight should not exceed 200kg, and the width not more than 56 cm (model similar to Yamaha B1, see below). Electricity
Biographies: A piece of music is just the beginning—the pianist/keyboardist Gwen Rouger acts as an active mediator between the spectator and the piece, beyond the conventional limits of an interpreter’s role. The emotional core of a piece is the point of departure for her reformulations of the concert performance context. All elements are arranged in order to foreground this core and share it with the utmost directness.This explorative approach underlies the development of her performative installations ('Cageplay', 'Urgent Stimulation', 'What you hear is not what you see', 'Fragile Strength’, ‘Caravan’). Having trained in Paris with the Argentinian composer and pianist Carlos Roqué Alsina, she received a Master’s Degree with distinction in Contemporary Music Performance from the Royal College of Music, London, UK, in June 2014. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at the 104, Centre Pompidou/Manifeste Festival (Paris, France), Cadogan Hall, Cafe OTO (Londres, U.K.), Central Station/Darmstadt Festival (Germany), Bozar (Brussels, Belgium), Klang Festival (Copenhagen, Denmark), Ulumbarra Theater/BIFEM festival (Bendigo, Australia), Lee Foundation Theater, NAFA (Singapore). I play sometimes with ensembles Plus-Minus (London, U.K.), and Ictus (Brussels, Belgium). Co-director and pianist/keyboardist of the ensemble for new music soundinitiative , she was in residency at La Cité des Arts (Paris, France) in 2015/2016 and at the Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, Germany) in 2016/2017. Website: gwenrouger.com
Charlie Sdraulig composes tenuous interactions in sound at perceptual and physical thresholds. His music has been performed throughout Europe, America and Australasia by the Spektral quartet (USA), Adam Tendler (USA) at the MATA festival, Zubin Kanga (Australia), Distractfold (UK), Apartment House (UK), Ensemble SurPlus at Schloss Solitude (Germany), and the Quiet Music Ensemble (Ireland) among many others. Originally hailing from Australia, he is currently pursuing a Doctorate at Stanford University. Press: “Remarkable” “A strange, gripping experience” —Bachtrack “Meditative and introverted…a collective experiment in listening” —The Boston Musical Intelligencer “One of the strangest pieces I have ever seen [and] one of the strongest compositions of either night. In a way that is hard to describe, the piece has some kind of poetic truth that nails part of the experience of a living thing trying to stay alive.” —Feast of Music at the MATA Festival “[His music] is not only interested in finding the breaking point or the limit but is also intrigued and attracted by what lies on the other side”— Tim Rutherford-Johnson in his book ‘Music After the Fall’ [The piece] directs its performers into a conducted sociality marked by phantom-like breathed, muffled and whispered sounds and silences. Sdraulig's comes closest out of all of these pieces to Dunn's notion of the "organisation of perception", where performer becomes listener and listener becomes performer and music, as a result, becomes not-itself— the Quietus Website: charliesdraulig.com
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