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Augenmusik
live performance, streets of Paris (Fr),
2016
1 + 1 AP
courtesy of Katya Ev & M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (Be)
ph Mathilde Geldhof, Alex Martinelli
images (c) Katya Ev
The live performance Augenmusik has expanded into a homologue body of works, sharing the same title (2016/2021) incl. re-performances, videos, photographs, installation, print editions etc.
The performance took place as an unauthorized action in public space. The work was produced independently, without any institutional framework, festival, or event, and occurred in the streets of Paris. The artist assumed all personal, legal, and financial risks, including the potential fines, for using regulated police flashlights and for organizing a "gathering" during the nationwide ‘State of Emergency’ that was in effect in France following the 2015 Paris attacks (Nov 2015 – Sept 2016).
Performers: 24
Music composition: J.S. Bach's Art of Fugue of Bach arranged police sirens
Carried object: French police flashing light, purchased from an official police supplier
Location: streets of Paris, France
Date: June 20, 2016 — Summer Solstice
Start: 9:00 PM ("blue hour")
End: 11:20 PM
Route(s):From each of Paris’s 24 highway gates to the city's geographical center, Les Halles
Length of route(s): 4,4 km to 6,3 km
Travel time(s): 1h 10m to 1h 50m
Direct viewers: estimated over 2000
Action:
On the day of the summer solstice, twenty-four performers departed simultaneously from each of the twenty four ‘portes’ (gates) of Paris heading to the geographical center of the city, former central market square Les Halles. The performers were carrying flashing blue police emergency lights, while police sirens contained in their back-packs emitted arhythmic siren alarms. They were progressively arriving to Les Halles one-by-one, putting down their lights and their back-packs on the ground and silently walking away. The dissonant signals of sirens were gradually becoming sonorous.
The sirens were orchestrating The Art of the Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach preliminary defragmented in 24 one-fifth intervals (a French siren сhord). The Art of the Fugue was playing on each separate siren since the start of the walking but only became audible when all twenty-four sirens joined in the same physical space. The timing of the whole performance corresponded to the length of the musical score - Bach’s opus magnum of polyphonic writing, however unfinished and of unspecified instrumentation (2h 20m). The number of performers (24) is due to the division of the 48-note composition, with each siren playing two notes.
Routes of the performance: Twenty-four routes starting from each of Paris's twenty-four 'portes' (gates) and leading to the geographical center of the city, the former central market square, Les Halles.
"A strong signifier of state power and a signal of danger, in Ev’s performance the police emergency light is taken over by the performers, thereby shifting power metaphorically to the people. Entering through the strategic defence points of the city, the performers converged on the historical “Belly of Paris,” referring to the ancient Greek understanding of the market square as a space for practicing direct democracy. The polyphonic texture of Bach’s composition served as a metaphor for the political equality of voices, as opposed the contemporary understanding of democracy which reduces this polyphony to the single voice of the majority. The performance triggered a strong reaction that revealed the sense of panic, hostility and aggression between the police and the city inhabitants. During the performance twenty two of twenty-four performers were stopped by the police, and two of the participants were suspected of terrorism and detained for questioning. At the end of the performance armed police special forces were waiting for the performers at Les Halles. They intended to disperse the “gathering” prohibited during the State of Emergency. They failed because the assembly of sirens replaced the forbidden assembly of people.
By subverting the local legal system, in ‘Augenmusik’ Ev tested the borders of state power, through an alternative kind of public assembly as well as the use of state instruments as the objects of empowerment for civil disobedience". Katia Krupennikova, "On the performance Augenmusik", 2018 >> full version
"Each performer walked from one of the city's gateways to the center of the city, carrying a flashing light legally purchased from the official supplier to the Police Prefecture. While the law penalizes the use of this rotating lamp in cars, it makes no provision for its use by pedestrians. Once arriving, each performer set down their flashing light on the floor in the absence of the other performers, to form a temporary agora. The two-tone ringtone was then used to recompose in unison Johann Sebastian Bach's renowned The Art of the Fugue piece, composed using 48 notes", Fabien Danesi, exhibition Etat d'Exception, Galerie Dix9, Paris (Fr), 2018
Bibliography
2023 Lotte Bode, "Conversation with Katya Ev, Kobe Matthys (Agency) and Lotte Bode (MHKA)", Stories and Threads. Perspectives on Art Archives, L'internationale, 2022, pp. 269 - 282
2022 cat. Statecrafts (and beyond), National Museum of Contemporary Art — EMST, Athens (Gr)
2022 Lawrence Abu Hamdan, "The 5 new exhibitions running at EMST", Athens Voice (Gr), June 22, 2022
2022 Dilpreet Bhullar, "The exhibition 'Statecraft (and beyond)' presents alternative models of statehood", Stir World, Oct 7, 2022
2022 Lotte Bode, " Research project: Archiving performance", MHKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp — CVK, The Flemish Centre for Art Archives (Be)
2022 "announcement with photographs", symposium Archiving Performance: Between Artistic Poetics and Institutional Policies, MHKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp - CVK, The Flemish Centre for Art Archives (Be)
2022 Cassandre Langlois, "Conversation between Katya Ev & Cassandre Langlois", exh. Tout dans le cabinet mental, Le Credac, Ivry (Fr)
2021 Katya Ev, "Performative Walk" (artist's contribution), Zonder kunstenaars geen kunst boek, NICC (Be)
2021 Rutger Lievens, "Performancekunst met blauw zwaailicht vraagt aandacht voor zwaar getroffen cultuursector", HLN (Be), Feb 21, 2021
2021 Arnaud Idelon, "Nous Dansions", YACI -I nternational Young Art Criticism, (Fr)
2020 Bart De Baere, "A Conversation Between Katya Ev and Bart De Baere", MHKA library — cat. In a Long Blink of an Eye, HISK (Be)
2020 Katya Ev, "Augenmusik" (artist's contribution), Kunstmagazine (Be)
2020 Ivan Isaev, "Curated", New East Digital Archive
2020 Sofie Crabbé, "HISK Open Studios 2020", HART Magazine, 18-21 Sept, 2020 (Be)
2019 "Internationaal symposium als tentoonstellingsruimte voor beeldende kunst", HART magazine (Be)
2018 Aurelia Declercq, "Katya Ev - Etat d'Exception", Point Contemporain (Fr)
2018 Ida Simon, "Do Disturb Au Palais De Tokyo – Notre Sélection Du Festival", Manifesto XXI (Fr)
2016 Maria Sokolovskaïa, "Revolutionnary performance by Ekaterina Vasilyeva", Russia Beyond (Fr), June 22, 2016
2016 Aurore Leloy, "Utopian Crossings" — radio broadcast , radio Hôtel Paradoxe - La Radio Libértaire (Fr)
2016 "Performance announcement with photograph ", Paris Art (Fr), June 20, 2026
Exhibitions
2022 Statecraft (and Beyond), National Museum of Contemporary Art – EMST, Athens (Gr)
2022 Carrozzone, Gallery This Is Arcade, Brussels (Be)
2021 Fifth Wave, Garage Museum of Contemporary Arts, Special project of 2nd Moscow Triennial, Moscow (Ru)
2021 Upside Down, DOC, Paris (Fr)
2021 Fiat Lux, Pilar, Brussels (Be)
2020 New Songs for Old Cities, Netwerk Aalst (Be)
2018 Etat d'Exception. À Oksana, Galerie Dix9, Paris (Fr), solo show
Do Disturb#4, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (Fr)
2016 La Nuit Blanche, Le Viaduc des Arts (Fr)
Re-performances
re-activations in public space(s):
2021 Performative Walk, streets of Aalst (Be), exhibition New Songs for Old Cities, Netwerk Aalst (Be)
2021 To hear with eyes, streets, Turnhout (Be), Storm opkomst festival, De Warande, Turnhout (Be)
2019 Augenmusik, streets of Ghent, University of Ghent (Be), curator Bart de Baere
adaptations for institutional space(s):
2021 Last, Upside Down, DOC, Paris (Fr)
2020 Last, M HKA's Birthday, M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (Be)
2018 To Hear With Eyes, Do Disturb#4, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (Fr)
Credits:
Dramaturg: Azad Asifovich
Assistant: Gavriella Abekassis
Production assistant: Gavriella Abekassis
Sound engineer: Romain Grenier
Technical director/ sound synchronisation engineer: Jérémy Dahan
Technical assistant: Emilen Gholmi
Musical conception: Katya Ev
Legal conception, relations to the authorities: Katya Ev, Azad Asifovich
Casting, direction: Katya Ev
Production: Katya Ev
Performers: Manu Arnaud, Antoine Balaven, Camille Le Chatelier, Léa Chevrefls, Fernando Crisis Planet, Elodie Dao, Etienne Dumas, Katya Ev, Partick Florentiny, Thomas Jones, Johan Larnouhet, Flavie Lebrun-Taugourdeau, David Lennon, Juliette Loubens, Guilhem Monceau, Alexandre Morzy, Tanya Nedelskaya, Lulù Nuti, Timotée Pedron-Desclaux, Mathieu Rouchon, Victoria Shalisheva, Claudia Tennant, Alice (surname unknown), Laura Wagner
Acknowledgments : Galerie Mansart, David Gadmer, Jérémy André
Related artworks & performance documentation
.jpg)
video based on live performance Augenmusik, 2018
Final scene at Les Halles - video based on live performance
Augenmusik, 2016
The Art of Fugue
orchestrated on 24 sirens, making-of video, 2016
series of 24 objects —artefacts from live performance
Augenmusik, 2016
installation based on live performance
Augenmusik, 2018
.jpg)
silk print edition & photograph, 2020
photographs based on live performance Augenmusik, Paris, 2016
photographs based on live performance To Hear with Eyes,
Palais de Tokyo (Fr), 2018
photographs based on live performance Performative Walk, Aalst (Be), 2021
Performance activations
Performative Walk, streets of Aalst (Be), 2021
Augenmusik, streets of Ghent (Be), 2019
Augenmusik, streets of Turnhout (Be), 2020
Last, MHKA Antwerp (Be), 2020
To Hear With Eyes, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (Fr), 2018
Exhibitions of Augenmusik (selection)
exhibition Statecraft, EMST - Athens (Gr), 2022
exhibition New Songs for the Old Cities, Netwerk Aalst (Be), 2021
Arnaud%20Leclercq.jpg)
Do Disturb#4, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (Fr), 2018
solo exhibition Etat d'Exception, Galerie Dix9, Paris (Fr), 2018