Flash is an international contemporary art/music project whereby visual artists from home and abroad, contemporary composers and musicians are invited to react to each other from within the context of their own disciplines. It is about the development, execution and presentation of nine DVD's.
Silent shadows, five low-pitched sounds on a bass guitar followed by the aggressive sound of a harpsichord. Enough to make the images extra weighty. Black objects on stakes bode ill in a shadowy environment. Then a dangling cuddly toy appears briefly – with mask, though. A space with woollen spider's webs hanging down comes into view. Birds with – again – masks. A sweet toy parrot, birds' claws, and the text 'PROTECTION' made out of bits of cuddly toys. An image with dozens of knitted gloves, and coloured threads leading ultimately to a cavernous place where masses of objects and stuffed cloth letters hang from the ceiling. The exact meaning is not obvious; masks are everywhere. Are we birds in a net and do we have to resign ourselves to our fate by calling out "Towa, Towa" at specified times and pull on a sweater? The ending gives an answer to this: 'attente'. Let's make sure we do that then, in spite of and thanks to the growing curtain of human activity, as is once again silently emphasized in the flash.
– Ellen de Bruijne
'Towa Towa' is based on two chords. Initially, the bass guitarist only plays the basic outline of each chord to spark off a series of variations and modulations on the harpsichord. The idiomatic Baroque style is confronted with references to rock from the sixties and seventies. After the introduction the bass guitar has the opportunity to comment on the quasi-improvised middle part. Then the harpsichord goes back to the initial phrasing and closes the symmetrical form.
– Maarten van Norden
|
Production: Bifrons Stichting, Amsterdam (Netherlands) & BALTIC, Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (UK)
Annette Messager ° 1943, Berck-sur-Mer (France)
Lives and works in Parijs (France)
Maarten van Norden ° 1955, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Lives and works in Amsterdam (Netherlands)
|
|
1 9 9 9 
