Thursday, December 8th, 2016, 20.00

CARTE BLEU

Variation about Yves Klein’s Symphonie Monoton — Silence

Featuring Tiziana Bertoncini (vl.), Irene Kepl (vl.), noid (vc.)
and Aiko Kazuko Kurosaki (performance)

[Aiko Kazuko Kurosaki: CARTE BLEU]

CARTE BLEU — Variation about Yves Klein’s Symphonie Monoton — Silence

According to Yves Klein, Symphonie Monoton — Silence was conceived in 1947-48. The score, which indicates a rather diffuse date of 1947-1961, consists solely of a D major chord, arranged for orchestra and choir, and includes the durational specification of 5 to 7 minutes plus 44 seconds of silence. At a later point Klein will also describe his vision of 20 minutes of sound followed by a period of silence of equal length. However, such a performance was never realized during the life time of the artist. The starting point of CARTE BLEU is the actual premiere of the work at the Galerie internationale d’art contemporain in Paris on March 3rd, 1960, in conjunction with the opening of Klein’s exhibition Anthropométrie de l’epoque bleue. This event shows aspects of (live) painting, performance and music. In this sense, one can easily relate it to early Happenings of the 1960s. Unfortunately, there is no audio document, but a (silent) film and some photographs reveal valuable details of the performance situation and the spatial and musical setting (3 violins, 3 violoncellos, 3 singers). The overall duration of the performance is unknown, but may be assumed somewhere around 10 minutes. CARTE BLEU is not intended as a historical restaging of the original work, but rather a subjective interpretation and free variation, on the basis of the underlying acoustic and visual elements. Aiko Kazuko Kurosaki is in command of the visual and performative situation, while the musical realization lies in the hands of Tiziana Bertoncini, Irene Kepl and noid.

[Bernhard Gál]

Aiko Kazuko Kurosaki (performance)

Tiziana Bertoncini (vl.)

Irene Kepl (vl.)

noid (vc.)