See also: Text Das Shutter-Prinzip.
...a rhythmic, semantic and performative etude, which is about opening and closing a grand piano. In ever-changing combinations, the foldable elements of the grand piano - front cover, back cover, keyboard flap, music stand, lid supports, lock strip - are operated; if the front is barely open, a chord is also struck, otherwise everything remains in the visual, but clearly and quickly rhythmized, and of course it is an action of physical exertion when, for instance, the heavy large lid is lifted and lowered dozens of times until the performer is exhausted (then the audience is asked to join in); thematically it is about the preparation of music performances, the grand piano as a fitness object, a cycle in preparation without a goal - 'the beginning is the result' (Hegel).
This mostly only visual action, which I would still attribute to the music because of the rhythm and the theme (the 'extended concept of music'), is also rhythmized by a live webcam projection of the whole thing onto a screen next door - again in a shuttering scheme continuously on-off-off (in an interval of 588 milliseconds). Above it is the title. The setup is remotely based on Joseph Kosuth's pioneering work Concept-Art, One and three chairs, in which a chair, its photographic reproduction in the same size and an encyclopedia article on the term "chair" are displayed side by side. In my case, the reproduction by video also does not serve the usual functions such as enlargement or transmission, but the doubling in another medium, and the rhythmic structuring by the shutter.
Soundfile, released on the LP for the 10th anniversary of Nadar Ensemble, presented at Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2016.
Johanna Vargas, Karlsruhe 2019
