Jour 4
Itinéraire de Désordre Urbain
26 September 2007 10:00
Cours Julien Marseilles
A large market square
Theodor di Ricco
I enjoy returning to the apartment where I am staring, to drink a glass of whiskey, smoke a joint and stare out the window at the building directly across form me. It has become a ritual. I try to be as quite as possible so not to wake Haife.
I learned when Johannes Deimling came by to pick me up and we drunk a coffee or tea together that Haife had lived in Tunisia for 28 years. She decided to leave and to live in France, having that possibility because her mother is parisian, because it is tough for a non-muslim, educated woman to actualize herself in Tunisia. The country is ruled by a dictator. Any successful business is consequently contacted by one of his family members for a part of the deal. It was the first time in three days I was able to converse with Haife. I suspected her north African influences because of her name and her extreme hospitality.
Johannes left and I did my morning ritual. I had a brilliant flash Monday night at the Intermmediaire, a bar at the square Jeans Jaures or in the language of the natives here 'La Plaine'. It was here that we met for dinner.
The idea came to me suddenly as I sat thinking about the two telephone booths. Why I have never worked with this idea is a mystery to me; the yellow pages. I would tape together a telephone book and cut the spine. I will unravel the book going from one booth to another. I will collect my long train of yellow pages, raping it around my body and proceed to enter the other telephone booth. It will be a beautiful image, a collection of yellow pages crumbled up, wrapped around a human body. Inside, I will move ever so discretely, my hand slowly appearing to reach for the phone and then slowly disappearing.
A lot could happen in-between now and the 16:30 tomorrow. Ideas change. The Mistral is blowing. Le Mistral is the name of the wind that blows up form the Sahara desert sometimes depositing red sand. The Mistral will add an interesting effect to the train of yellow pages that I will pull form one booth to another. I fell asleep thinking about my performance for Wednesday.
Tuesday, I was full of energy ready to be a full time artist. I got a couple more artistic ideas that I want to realize in my remaining time in Marseilles. It has taken a couple of days to get my artistic juices flowing. At the atelier of Ornic'Art at La Friche, all were in intensive preparation for their performances, a real artistic laboratory. For the first three days, we meet as a performance art symposium. As of Wednesday, we are participating in a Festival of Performance Art.
Twice a day we are feed by Karina Goua. Oh course, one eats well here in France. Delicious dishes with a great array of Mediterranean foods. I feel better that James Brown. I feel like a god in france.
Wednesday. Full Program. I got up at 8:30 to be at the Cours Julian at 10:00. Two hours later, waiting for our afternoon meal, sitting next to a fountain, I have seen already six performances. I will simply discribe the performances. I will avoid making personal comments. I have realized that my blog is being read, much to my surprise and I want to leave this town with friends and no enemies.
They wore black clothes and had white gloves. They carried white plastic bags filled with flour and walked at different degrees of speed, climbing or descending the stairs that lead to the Cours Julien.
Half Swiss
Quite a physical performance. They chose the handrails at the stairs leading up to Cours Julian. The two men attached their feet to two wooden planks. The planks were loaded with sound equipment. They were really wired right up to the ear-phones. They flipped themselves onto the rails, wore earphones and slowly slid down the rails, playing their music only to themselves. There was a lot of grunting.
Mélodie Duchesne
She started her performance at the end of the stair rails leading up the the Cours Julian. She dressed in yellow, with orange leggings. She resembled a duck. She put on a skirt made of paper boats, a diving mask, flippers and a snorkel. She quacked and climbed the stairs, walked around dropping yellow boats on which she had squirted ketchup. She jumped into the fountain, pulled out a string of plastic baby ducklings from between her legs, climbed out of the water and died.
Maria Cosmes.
She wandered through the market shoppers and occasionally introduced herself to someone, shaking their hands, wearing plastic kitchen gloves. Depending on their nationality, she introduced herself accordingly.
Edwidge Mandrou + Jean-Pierre Ive.
She walked backwards, wearing a brace that held four rear view mirrors. He joined her carrying a green watering can with the phrase "L'art verge même repété" and "L'art osé du matin". The finished their performance with the word "FIN", written on a small plastic plank which they pulled out of the watering can.
Lunch Break outside at the Cours Julien. Good food as always and a three hour break to digest what we saw and what we ate.
Dariusy Fodczuk + Sylvie Gil
Their performance took place in the metro station La Joliette. Darius gave a very short lecture about what is art. His synopsis, art has the power to move your heart. If your heart is moved in a good way, you will feel good and in short, it will make the world a better place. He asked us to sing a very beautiful french song. Only a few lines, as the doors opened at each train that arrived.
Elsa Rignault
She carried an inflatable swimming pool. She asked shoppers to make love with her in the swimming pool. She attached a pump to her stomach and those participating would press their bodies next to her, thus inflating the pool. Her performance continued throughout the day. Every tenth person who made love to her, she would call the FRAC (Fonds Regional d'Art Contemporain) and ask them to dump a few liters of water into another inflatable pool that was located there.
Johannes Deimling + Natasha Musléra
Place de la Joliette. Johannes climbed a triangular sculpture that rose ten meters. At the pinnacle, he held a sign with the word 'Silence'. Natasha took a microphone and scratched it on the sculpture and on the ground. The sound was amplified. The Place de la Joliette is a very noisy place.
Theodor di Ricco + Sylvette Babin
I did my yellow pages as described earlier. It worked very well. While I was descending the road, wrapping myself in yellow pages, Sylvette along with Maria, Luna and Karima filled the remaining three telephone booths with inflatable and stagnate objects.
Les Fermières Obsédées + Astrid Lefevre
Les Fermières are three women from Quebec. They occupied a corner of the street across from the telephone booth. They were dressed in embroidered earth tone blouses and skirts, with disheveled wigs and holding cola bottles. Astrid also with wig, taped their eyes open, then taped their feet to the ground. She continued taping, a made a circle around Les Fermières. The three women shook their cola bottles and sprayed the contents onto themselves, sinking slowing to the ground, Astrid continued to tape.
Ornic'Art
Four members of Ornic'Art sitting at a bus stop, dressed themselves in white stretch cloth bags. Once concealed, they wrote on a cardboard sign various expressions dealing with renouncing silence or being programmed. They rolled on the ground in their white cloth bags like worms. Later they passed a goldfish from mouth to mouth and we followed them to the FRAC. The fish survived.
Les Tas
Okay, I said I would not comment on the performances but this one upset me. The two men taped a speaker to a metal gate in the courtyard at the FRAC. Their choice was Michael Jackson's "You gotta be starting somethin'.The public were given stones to throw at the speaker until they stoned the speaker to silence. I like Michael and why was the public supposed to kill the music, I did not understand. Later when talking to the two, they told me it was about love/hate relationships.
lets try to be clear..
Fabrice Metais
We had an aperitif at FRAC and later walked to Le Point Bascule where we are to perform on Friday. There we were served dinner prepared by our new cook Sylvie Gil, I returned to Haife's apartment for the last evening. After spending five days here, getting to know her and having my little ritual every night before landing in bed, I feel a little sad about the change. Always leave the party wanting more, is a good motto to follow as well as, change is the only constant in life. Today, I moved over to Cyril's apartment.
26 September 2007 10:00
Cours Julien Marseilles
A large market square
Theodor di Ricco
I enjoy returning to the apartment where I am staring, to drink a glass of whiskey, smoke a joint and stare out the window at the building directly across form me. It has become a ritual. I try to be as quite as possible so not to wake Haife.
I learned when Johannes Deimling came by to pick me up and we drunk a coffee or tea together that Haife had lived in Tunisia for 28 years. She decided to leave and to live in France, having that possibility because her mother is parisian, because it is tough for a non-muslim, educated woman to actualize herself in Tunisia. The country is ruled by a dictator. Any successful business is consequently contacted by one of his family members for a part of the deal. It was the first time in three days I was able to converse with Haife. I suspected her north African influences because of her name and her extreme hospitality.
Johannes left and I did my morning ritual. I had a brilliant flash Monday night at the Intermmediaire, a bar at the square Jeans Jaures or in the language of the natives here 'La Plaine'. It was here that we met for dinner.
The idea came to me suddenly as I sat thinking about the two telephone booths. Why I have never worked with this idea is a mystery to me; the yellow pages. I would tape together a telephone book and cut the spine. I will unravel the book going from one booth to another. I will collect my long train of yellow pages, raping it around my body and proceed to enter the other telephone booth. It will be a beautiful image, a collection of yellow pages crumbled up, wrapped around a human body. Inside, I will move ever so discretely, my hand slowly appearing to reach for the phone and then slowly disappearing.
A lot could happen in-between now and the 16:30 tomorrow. Ideas change. The Mistral is blowing. Le Mistral is the name of the wind that blows up form the Sahara desert sometimes depositing red sand. The Mistral will add an interesting effect to the train of yellow pages that I will pull form one booth to another. I fell asleep thinking about my performance for Wednesday.
Tuesday, I was full of energy ready to be a full time artist. I got a couple more artistic ideas that I want to realize in my remaining time in Marseilles. It has taken a couple of days to get my artistic juices flowing. At the atelier of Ornic'Art at La Friche, all were in intensive preparation for their performances, a real artistic laboratory. For the first three days, we meet as a performance art symposium. As of Wednesday, we are participating in a Festival of Performance Art.
Twice a day we are feed by Karina Goua. Oh course, one eats well here in France. Delicious dishes with a great array of Mediterranean foods. I feel better that James Brown. I feel like a god in france.
Wednesday. Full Program. I got up at 8:30 to be at the Cours Julian at 10:00. Two hours later, waiting for our afternoon meal, sitting next to a fountain, I have seen already six performances. I will simply discribe the performances. I will avoid making personal comments. I have realized that my blog is being read, much to my surprise and I want to leave this town with friends and no enemies.
Stéphanie Echeinberg + Jack Boyer
Half Swiss
Quite a physical performance. They chose the handrails at the stairs leading up to Cours Julian. The two men attached their feet to two wooden planks. The planks were loaded with sound equipment. They were really wired right up to the ear-phones. They flipped themselves onto the rails, wore earphones and slowly slid down the rails, playing their music only to themselves. There was a lot of grunting.
Mélodie Duchesne
She started her performance at the end of the stair rails leading up the the Cours Julian. She dressed in yellow, with orange leggings. She resembled a duck. She put on a skirt made of paper boats, a diving mask, flippers and a snorkel. She quacked and climbed the stairs, walked around dropping yellow boats on which she had squirted ketchup. She jumped into the fountain, pulled out a string of plastic baby ducklings from between her legs, climbed out of the water and died.
Maria Cosmes.
She wandered through the market shoppers and occasionally introduced herself to someone, shaking their hands, wearing plastic kitchen gloves. Depending on their nationality, she introduced herself accordingly.
Edwidge Mandrou + Jean-Pierre Ive.
She walked backwards, wearing a brace that held four rear view mirrors. He joined her carrying a green watering can with the phrase "L'art verge même repété" and "L'art osé du matin". The finished their performance with the word "FIN", written on a small plastic plank which they pulled out of the watering can.
Lunch Break outside at the Cours Julien. Good food as always and a three hour break to digest what we saw and what we ate.
Dariusy Fodczuk + Sylvie Gil
Their performance took place in the metro station La Joliette. Darius gave a very short lecture about what is art. His synopsis, art has the power to move your heart. If your heart is moved in a good way, you will feel good and in short, it will make the world a better place. He asked us to sing a very beautiful french song. Only a few lines, as the doors opened at each train that arrived.
Elsa Rignault
She carried an inflatable swimming pool. She asked shoppers to make love with her in the swimming pool. She attached a pump to her stomach and those participating would press their bodies next to her, thus inflating the pool. Her performance continued throughout the day. Every tenth person who made love to her, she would call the FRAC (Fonds Regional d'Art Contemporain) and ask them to dump a few liters of water into another inflatable pool that was located there.
Johannes Deimling + Natasha Musléra
Place de la Joliette. Johannes climbed a triangular sculpture that rose ten meters. At the pinnacle, he held a sign with the word 'Silence'. Natasha took a microphone and scratched it on the sculpture and on the ground. The sound was amplified. The Place de la Joliette is a very noisy place.
Theodor di Ricco + Sylvette Babin
I did my yellow pages as described earlier. It worked very well. While I was descending the road, wrapping myself in yellow pages, Sylvette along with Maria, Luna and Karima filled the remaining three telephone booths with inflatable and stagnate objects.
Les Fermières Obsédées + Astrid Lefevre
Les Fermières are three women from Quebec. They occupied a corner of the street across from the telephone booth. They were dressed in embroidered earth tone blouses and skirts, with disheveled wigs and holding cola bottles. Astrid also with wig, taped their eyes open, then taped their feet to the ground. She continued taping, a made a circle around Les Fermières. The three women shook their cola bottles and sprayed the contents onto themselves, sinking slowing to the ground, Astrid continued to tape.
Ornic'Art
Four members of Ornic'Art sitting at a bus stop, dressed themselves in white stretch cloth bags. Once concealed, they wrote on a cardboard sign various expressions dealing with renouncing silence or being programmed. They rolled on the ground in their white cloth bags like worms. Later they passed a goldfish from mouth to mouth and we followed them to the FRAC. The fish survived.
Les Tas
Okay, I said I would not comment on the performances but this one upset me. The two men taped a speaker to a metal gate in the courtyard at the FRAC. Their choice was Michael Jackson's "You gotta be starting somethin'.The public were given stones to throw at the speaker until they stoned the speaker to silence. I like Michael and why was the public supposed to kill the music, I did not understand. Later when talking to the two, they told me it was about love/hate relationships.
lets try to be clear..
" time, rolling, is filled in by love (or vice versa)
so lets be simple love=time
as long as human exists, he has always been a technical animal
technical things are memory
so technical things, in some ways, supports time
so, technical things support love
nowadays, we can record directly a time flow (such as voice)
on technical things (such as a CD)
the industrial system makes it possible to multiply identical
technical things (such as CD)
as the CD is supposed to support love, then we can say that the
industrial system can multiply love.....the same way that Jesus
multiplied bread and fishes nearby the lake..
then we can talk about "industrial love"...it is not negative...
it is just about the way it spreads
The album "Thriller" is basically the most sells album
ever...104000000 (more than Jesus did)....
that's the only reason why we chose this record
"Wanna be starting something" is basically the first song of this
album..we didn't really chose a particular song...
The object of the performance was to ask ourselves about the strange
status of "industrial love" or "augmented love" (as it is mediated
through the technical system). We can destroy a speaker but the love
MJ gave 35 years ago, by singing, is still alive...
From one day to another, the song was always the same,
unchanged..Michael Jackson (or at least his music) seems to be "unbreakable"
(as he said himself)....
So the subject of the performance was not really love/hate
relationships but more about love/technical relationships... "
so lets be simple love=time
as long as human exists, he has always been a technical animal
technical things are memory
so technical things, in some ways, supports time
so, technical things support love
nowadays, we can record directly a time flow (such as voice)
on technical things (such as a CD)
the industrial system makes it possible to multiply identical
technical things (such as CD)
as the CD is supposed to support love, then we can say that the
industrial system can multiply love.....the same way that Jesus
multiplied bread and fishes nearby the lake..
then we can talk about "industrial love"...it is not negative...
it is just about the way it spreads
The album "Thriller" is basically the most sells album
ever...104000000 (more than Jesus did)....
that's the only reason why we chose this record
"Wanna be starting something" is basically the first song of this
album..we didn't really chose a particular song...
The object of the performance was to ask ourselves about the strange
status of "industrial love" or "augmented love" (as it is mediated
through the technical system). We can destroy a speaker but the love
MJ gave 35 years ago, by singing, is still alive...
From one day to another, the song was always the same,
unchanged..Michael Jackson (or at least his music) seems to be "unbreakable"
(as he said himself)....
So the subject of the performance was not really love/hate
relationships but more about love/technical relationships... "
Fabrice Metais
We had an aperitif at FRAC and later walked to Le Point Bascule where we are to perform on Friday. There we were served dinner prepared by our new cook Sylvie Gil, I returned to Haife's apartment for the last evening. After spending five days here, getting to know her and having my little ritual every night before landing in bed, I feel a little sad about the change. Always leave the party wanting more, is a good motto to follow as well as, change is the only constant in life. Today, I moved over to Cyril's apartment.