Essays and Texts

The Online Contribution:
Make up productions‘ contribution edited by Jade Dreyfuss and Antonia Baehr consists of a wide variety of scores  to various of performances by a variety of authors, including ‚Die Hörposaune‚, ‚My Dog Is My Piano, Part 3‚, and ‚HA-HA-HA-AH-AH-AH‚. In addition, students of the HfK, the University of Arts Bremen, developed ‚Telepathic Scores‘ together with Antonia Baehr within the framework of an online workshop.

„Collaborative work in general and the sharing, copying and further use of modules developed by other members of a network in particular have become practices in communities in the arts, design and academia in recent years. The main part of the dynamic archive is the iterative implementation of the digital archive itself and the continuous addition of components (as notations, software, technical specifications, patterns, scores, tools, rules, texts, principles) to the archive. The archive allows for the copying and modification of already archived components.“  – from The Dynamic Archive Website.

Thanks to Schwankhalle, Irena Kukric, Farzad Golghasemi and the Dynamic Archive, and to the „versions“ makers and performers : Jule Flierl, the CCT Students of University of Leipzig (Center of Competence of Theater), Maulwerker, the HfK students and the ‘Telepatic scores’ workshop participants Hochschule für Künste Bremen, Antonia Baehr (make up productions), Jade Dreyfuss

The Book:
The Dynamic Archive 03. Issue 1, Ed. By Andrea Sick, Irena Kukric, The Dynamic Archive 2021, Supported by the University of the Arts Bremen, ISBN 978-3-9823476-0-8
The price of the book is 20€. If you would like to purchase the book, please write to thedynamicarchive@hfk-bremen.de

WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON YOUR FIRST THEATRE VISIT AFTER THE LOCKDOWN?

Locked down at home during the first wave of Covid-19, David Weber-Krebs kept on thinking about the day when theatres would open their doors again. At that point, it was somehow difficult to even picture that moment. On the 8th of April, 2020, in the middle of the lockdown, David sent an e-mail to his peers: artists, scholars, curators, and spectators belonging to different art communities. In this e-mail, there was a simple question: What will happen on your first theatre visit after the lockdown? It was an invitation to imagine the future of theatre from this very specific moment when theatres were all closed and when it was not clear how and when and if they would open again.

David Weber-Krebs (Ed.)

and then the doors opened again

Onomatopee, 2020

ISBN: 978-94-93148-38-3

Made possible by: The Dutch Embassy (Brussels), KASK & Conservatorium, ACT — Art, Climate, Transition (Kaaitheater & Theater Rotterdam), Kunstencentrum Vooruit, STUK Kunstencentrum, Buda Kunstencentrum, December Dance, KASK/School of Arts, BIT Teatergarasjen, far°/Fabrique des Arts vivants, Cialo/Umysl, Zeitraumexit

You can purchase the book here.

Szenische Konstellationen nach dem Ende der Welt

Die Idee der Welt als einer Einheit, die ‚dem‘ Menschen bildhaft ansichtig werden könnte, gerät mit dem 20. Jahrhundert ins Wanken und rutscht im beginnenden 21. Jahrhundert in eine Krise. Dies geht mit der Globalisierung und zunehmenden Vereinheitlichung globaler Zusammenhänge einher. Und es hat Auswirkungen auf szenische Künste, ihre Darstellungsweisen und ihren politischen Anspruch.

Bereits die Annahme, dass Erfahrungen zu einem Bild der Welt zusammengefasst werden können, das dann als Welt als solche aufgefasst werden kann, entwickelte sich parallel zur Konstruktion neuzeitlicher Schauanlagen. Doch insbesondere szenische Arbeiten der letzten Jahre verlangen es, anders über die Welt und die Bühne nachzudenken – mithin neu zu fragen, was Theater sein kann.

Das Buch untersucht diese Verschiebung vom Bildhaften hin zu räumlichen Praktiken und damit vom Globalen zum Planetarischen. Erörtert wird, wie die Vor- und Darstellung der Welt als universale Einheit erzeugt, durchbrochen und verändert wird. Anhand von Grenzbewegungen wird analysiert, wie das, was in der vereinheitlichenden Annahme keinen Platz findet, dennoch mit seinen je spezifischen Ansprüchen Raum erhalten kann. Welche anderen Weltzugänge und -verhältnisse können durch kritische Darstellungspraxis erfahrbar werden? Wie ließe sich ein Gemeinsames, Geteiltes zeigen, ohne falsche Rückschlüsse zu einem fixen Bild und allgemeingültigen Behauptungen zu summieren?

Detaillierte Studien herausragender exemplarischer Inszenierungen (von Antonia Baehr, Romeo Castellucci, Kate McIntosh, Rimini Protokoll, Walid Raad und Tino Sehgal) treten in Dialog mit philosophischen Positionen (v.a. von Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida und Jean-Luc Nancy). So wird ein Denken der Vielheit an Welt(en) entfaltet und das Potenzial gegenwärtiger szenischer Künste aufgezeigt. Denn Bühnen stehen nicht als Bild der Welt vor uns, sondern gehen uns als veränderliche und pluriversale Welten anders an: als Verzweigung, Affizierung, Verhandlung über das Bezugnehmen selbst.

Leon Gabriel

Bühne der Altermundialität – Vom Bild der Welt zur räumlichen Theaterpraxis

Neofelis, 2019

ISBN: 978-3-95808-328-8

Das Buch ist hier erhältlich: neofelis

Pressemappe

Ein Ausschnitt aus dem unveröffentlichtem Vortrag über Spontaneität und \’Abecedarium Bestiarium\‘ von PD Dr. Marita Tatari.

Hier finden Sie den Ausschnitt als pdf: Spontaneität in Performance und Drama.pdf

An introduction to MY DOG IS MY PIANO written by Anneliese Ostertag as part of the publication of en plein air, Ethnographies of the Digital by warehouse industries.

Pujan Karambeigi, Anneliese Ostertag, Tabea Rossol, Pierre Schwarzer, Lukas Stolz (eds.)
ein plein air. Ethnographies of the Digital
Spector Books, 2018
ISBN: 978-3-95905-231-3

You can find the online publication here: warehouse industries

Die Darstellbarkeit des Anderen ist eine der zentralen Fragen der Theatertheorie und -praxis. In einer theaterwissenschaftlichen Lektüre philosophischer Positionen im Anschluss an Levinas und einer detaillierten Betrachtung von fünf szenischen Arbeiten stellt sich Mayte Zimmermanns Untersuchung dieser Problematik und nimmt szenische Rücksicht auf die Grenzen von Darstellbarkeit.

Sie zeigt: Dem Auftritt als erkenn- und verstehbarer Figur, in deren Namen (Darstellungs-)Politik betrieben werden kann, wohnt automatisch Gewalt inne – solange nicht nach dem gefragt wird, was in der Darstellung qua ihrer Formen Anderes bleiben muss.

Im Kapitel Vor dem Gesicht (Seiten 142-172) untersucht Zimmermann die Voraussetzungen von (An)Sprache in Antonia Baehrs FOR FACES.

Mayte Zimmermann

Von der Darstellbarkeit des Anderen. Szenen eines Theaters der Spur

transcript Verlag, 2009

ISBN: 978-3-8376-3879-0

Das Buch ist hier erhältlich: transcript Verlag

Un entretien par Cécile Schenck avec Antonia Baehr autour d\’ABECEDARIUM BESTIARIUM.
L\’entretien est apparu dans LIGEIA, dossiers sur l\’Art: Art & Alphabet (N° 153-156, janvier – juin 2017)

Vous trouvez l\’entretien ici: Ligeia

de.

Weiß, quadratisch, lichtdurchflutet die Bühne. Streng komponiert und lustvoll verspielt der Tanz. Drei Performerinnen in unterschiedlichen Anordnungen, miteinander, gegeneinander, nebeneinander, ineinander, allein, zu zweit, zu dritt. Und viele andere drumherum – Gertrude Stein, Djane CC Imperatriz mit weiteren Musikerinnen, das Publikum. Ein komponierter Körper aus vielen Teilen, verbunden durch spielerisches Begehren. 

Here you can find the complete text (German original version) as pdf:

Butch Abstraction.pdf

de. & engl.

Dreisamkeit. Eine Konstellation, die in den seltensten Fällen durch Stillstand gekennzeichnet ist. In Kontexten, in denen das Paar organisierendes Pinzip ist, sorgt die Drei für Unruhe – ist aber auch treibende Kraft des erotischen Austausches. Eine wiederkehrende Frage im „Normal Dance“: Welche erringt den Platz in der Sonne? Ein temporärer Genuss.

Here you can find the complete text (German original version) as pdf:

Normal Dance, Antke Engel.pdf

For the English translation by William Wheeler: 

Normal Dance, Antke Engel, English Version.pdf

How does the production of performance engage with the fundamental issues of our advanced neo-capitalist age?

André Lepecki surveys a decade of experimental choreography to uncover the dual meaning of ‘performance’ in the twenty-first century: not just an aesthetic category, but a mode of political power. He demonstrates the enduring ability of performance to critique and subvert this power, examining this relationship through five ‘singularities’ in contemporary dance: thingness, animality, persistence, darkness, and solidity.

Exploring the works of Mette Ingvartsen, Yvonne Rainer, Ralph Lemon, and Antonia Baehr (on pages 101 -114), Lepecki uses his concept of ‘singularity’—the resistance of categorization and aesthetic identification—to examine the function of dance and performance in political and artistic debate.

André Lepecki

Singularities. Dance in the Age of Performance

Routledge, 2016

ISBN: 978-1138907713

You can find the book here: routledge

„Ein Stuhl, ein Haus, eine Picknickdecke. In einem von Vorhängen umgebenen Schaukasten, eine Bühne auf der Bühne. Zwischen der Bühne und dem Publikum: Andrea Neumann und ihr Innenklavier sowie die Sprecherin. Hier entsteht der Ton und mit dem Ton das Hörbild, das auch eine Choreographie ist, ein Live-Hörspiel, das auf der Bühne stattfindet während es davor gesprochen wird. …“

Der Text ist hier als pdf erhältlich: Nanna Heidenreich, Misses und Mysterien.pdf

On the occasion of the Oral Site publication by Tom Engels and Tessa Theissen More Than One Tie in April 2013, Sarma compiled a small collection of texts on the work of Antonia Baehr.

The collection includes interviews and essays on practice by Antonia Baehr herself and some of her close collaborators, such as Wiliam Wheeler, Andrea Neumann and Sabine Ercklentz. Next to reviews and essays by writers affiliated with Sarma, such as Constanze Klementz, André Lepecki and Jeroen Peeters, the collection includes several texts that are published here for the first time. These comprise the letter and the script of Facing For Faces, a dialogue presented by Baehr and Klementz at Mousonturm in Frankfurt in May 2011. The unabridged version of the dialogue by Antonia Baehr and Xavier Le Roy printed in Baehr\’s book Rire/Laugh/Lachen (2008) is made available here in French and English. As a whole, the collection is complementary to the large selection of reviews available on Antonia Baehr\’s website.

Credits
Editor Sarma: Jeroen Peeters
Editorial assistance: Wendy De Pauw and Tom Engels

You can find the collection of texts here: www.sarma.be/pages/Collection_Antonia_Baehr

Here you can find almost a little book that was dristibuted to the public during the two and a half months program: „make up – At Antonia Baehr and Werner Hirsch\’s Table“ in Beursschouwburg in Brussel in March, April and May 2013. The text, written by André Lepecki, is on Antonia Baehr\’s works and goes along with pictures of different productions of Antonia Baehr.

Tobedonewithabsurd.pdf

Here you can find a first version of an index that collects all informations, publiations, works about the make up productions. There is also a book edited by the Beursschouwburg, with all complete articles that are quoted in the Index. This Index was made during the presentation of make up works: „make up – At Antonia Baehr and Warner Hirsch\’s Table“ in Beursschouwburg in Brussel in March, April and May 2013.

index.pdf

fr.
E-mail by Arantxa Martinez, performer and choreographer, friend of Antonia Baehr and make up productions, written the 19th of May 2013 after seeing the performance Abecedarium Bestiarium.

Here you can find the mail in a pdf format :
Chère Antonia, Valérie et Sylvie.pdf

engl. / de.
The piece was created in the context of ABECEDARIUM BESTIARIUM, a production by make up productions, and was conceived for Antonia Baehr as the performer.

On this webpage you can find out more about the live film performance by Isabell Spengler.

Ein Hund und eine Frau wohnen im selben Haus. Es, das Haus, behaust wiederum den Hund und die Frau. Früher einmal, da haben auch die beiden Töchter der Frau dort gewohnt. Manchmal kommen sie zu Besuch. Die eine Tochter bringt dann immer Hüte mit, und Aufnahmegeräte und eine Pfeife.

Here you can find the complete text in a German version
Nanna Heidenreich, My Dog is My Piano.pdf

Here you can find the complete text in a French Version
Nanna Heidenreich, My Dog is My Piano.pdf

This articles of Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz presents their film „Toxic“ played during the three-yearly film program of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

Toxic.pdf

Choreographing Relations undertakes the experiment of a conceptual site development of contemporary choreography by means of practical philosophy. Guided by the radically empiricist question „What Can Choreography Do?“ the book investigates the performances of Antonia Baehr, Juan Dominguez, Xavier Le Roy, and Eszter Salamon, and the philosophical works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. It establishes a relation between these practitioners as an encounter in method, and develops method as a singular, material and experimental practice. In view of these singular methods and the participatory relations to which they give rise, Choreographing Relations offers a prolific inventory of arepresentational procedures that qualitatively transformed choreography and philosophy at the turn of the twentieth century.

The book contains a chapter on Antonia Baehr\’s HOLDING HANDS (p. 188-208).

You can find the book here: epodium Verlag.

You can also see the article here: Tanzlabor 21

engl.

Four faces emerge from the darkness. Bathed in soft light, these faces form the center of a small arena in which the audience is seated. Like a landscape that moves through the seasons, the faces gradually transform.

Here you can find a complete version of the original text in English:
For Faces.pdf

it.
Quattro visi emergono dal buio. Avvolti nella luce soffusa, sono il centro di una piccola arena in cui è seduto il pubblico.

Here you can find a complete version of the Italian translation :
forfacesEngelseFonti.pdf

it.
For Faces, four faces, sono vicino-lontano, sono fronte-lati-nuca, sono scia fisiognomica. All\’inizio: l\’ovale del volto, il sembiante, è uno spazio in cui vagare, passeggiare, attraversare, distrarsi.

Here you can find the text in a full pdf version :
Autobiografia di tutti.pdf

Dramaturgical Strategies in the Work of Antonia Baehr
Interview between Tom Engels and Antonia Baehr on her film „For Ida“ and her choreographic piece „For Faces“, published in Bastard or Playmate? Adapting Theatre, Mutating Media and Contemporary Performing Arts.

Robrecht Vanderbeeken, Christel Stalpaert, David Depestel, Boris Debackere (eds.)
Bastard or Playmate? Adapting Theatre, Mutating Media and Contemporary Performing Arts
Amsterdam University Press, 2012
ISBN 978 90 8964 258 5

Here you can find the pdf version of the text :
Between Solitaire and a Basketball Game.pdf

„For Ida is a choreographic self-portrait shot with the home technology of the videophone (Skype) and a laptop’s internal camera. As a “performance for the camera”, the film’s articulation unfolds by sole means of choreographic language, as a game of solitaire without words, without added time effects or manipulation—which means there aren’t any cuts either.“

Here you can find a pdf version of the Self-Portrait :
For Ida.pdf

As part of the third edition of the e-journal

MAP – Media | Archive | Performance 

MAP #3  Performing Sound:  Hear / See

The following text is a transcribed and slightly revised version of a lecture on relationships between performance and film, held by Antonia Baehr and Isabell Spengler at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival on February 12, 2010, in Arsenal Cinema 1.

TwoFriends.pdf

The concept called „post-porn“ was invented by erotic photographer Wink van Kempen and made popular by sexwork-activist and performance artist Annie M. Sprinkle. It claimed a new status of sexual representation: Through identifying with critical joy and agancy while deconstructing its hetero/normative and naturalising conditions, Sprinkle made us think of sex as a category open for use and appropriation of queer_feminist counter-pleasures beyond the victimising framework of censorship and taboo.

This book contains numerous contributions by artists, theorists and activists. It includes a text by William Wheeler My costumes got me interested in different kinds of sexuality, because they made me touch my body differently! (p. 312-323) and another by Werner Hirsch Laughing is loud and dirty (p. 324-331).

Tim Stüttgen (ed.)
PostPornPolitics. Queer_Feminist Perspective on the Politics of Porn Performances and Sex_Work as Cultural Production
b_books 2009
ISBN: 978-3-933557-76-6

You can find the book here: b_books

„On applause“ is a text written by Lars Kwakkenbos about the notion of applause in theater and society today. He reffers to the history of this gesture and to his evolution in time. For him, the spectateur through the applause can also be seen as the „guardien du réel“ as he compares it with the piece „Laugh“ from Antonia Baehr.

Here you can find a pdf version of the text
Onapplause.pdf

Zu den Choreographien von Antonia Baehr

In the book „Lücken Sehen“, that was edited for the 66th birthday of Hans-Thies Lehmann, Gerald Siegmund wrote a publication on „Laugh“ of Antonia Baehr. Between a telling story of the construction of the piece and a try to analyse it, Gerald Siegmund gives a very fine description of the choreoraphic process of „Laugh“.

Here you can find a pdf version of the publication
GeraldSiegmund.pdf

Essay written for the journal „positionen. Texte zur aktuellen Musik – Menschenbilder“ Nr. 80 August 2009. Pages 22-23. (in German)

Here you can find the pdf version of the text :
Positionen.pdf

Antonia Baehr. Rire, Laugh, Lachen, Paris, Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers 2008, p. 80-96

You can find the text in pdf here: Entretien Baehr – Le Roy

Journal edited by Les Laboratoires d\’Aubervilliers including the text „J\’aime rire. Je ris souvent. On me voit souvent rire.“ by Lindy Annis as well as scores and further materials about the project RIRE / LAUGH / LACHEN. Published in April, 2008. (in French).

Englisch version below:
I Like to laugh.pdf

French Version below:
JournalLabosPDF.pdf

Oral Site is a new open source software and platform that Myriam Van Imschoot initiated as part of her artistic work on orality, transmission and interview archives. In 2011 it has been developed by a team of coders, writers and sound specialists of Sarma, Constant and Rits, who share an interest in oral and experimental publication formats.

Oral Site enables users to read, edit and publish online multimodal publications that merge sound, image, text and graphics. Oral Site is both an instrument and a place where one can „expand“ publication within an environment that encourages contributors to move beyond the classical written form and to practice new ways of dealing with text, orality, visuality, graphicality, temporality, spaciality, performativity etc.

Website : Walk + Talk

Text published in the Catalogue: \’Deutsche Tanzplattform 2010\‘, 25.-28.2.2010, Nuremberg

CKlementz Alles ist geregelt Eng.pdf
CKlementz Alles ist geregelt German.pdf

An e-mail wriiten in french on the December 24th 2006 by Antonia Baher to thank Maud Desseigne, after the performance. Une collection inachevée de mercis …

Here you can find the text in Pdf :
mercipourMaud.pdf

fr.
« Merci » est un autoportrait qui n’est étonnement pas, comme le genre le dicte habituellement, un portrait de la chorégraphe par elle-même.

Here you can find a pdf version of the text :
Merci.pdf

engl. & fr.
„If Merci is a choreographic work, it is because it uses gesture and repetition of choreographic material as motor elements of its reflection on gender identity. Absurd and nevertheless familiar gestures are performed with a pleasure that the artist never hides. The execution of a gesture is therefore not performed for itself, but in order to reveal the intimate dynamics of the artist and her way of confronting them.“

Here you can find the pdf version of the text in its original language in french :
Je suis une fiction/ Des jeux d\’identités.pdf

Here you can find the pdf version of the text translated in englisch by Alice Chauchat and Goeffrey Garrison :
I am a fiction / Identity games

This program was written by Valérie Castan & Antonia Baehr

Here you can find the program in a pdf version :
Merciprogram.pdf

This program was written in french for the perfomance „Merci“ in Nyon

Here you can find a pdf version of the program written in french
MerciNyon.pdf

LET HER HAVE IT

I would like to say something as an homage
to all the women on stage, all these ladies.
It’s so nice to see a growing female presence
nowadays in music.

It’s so nice also because it’s not just singers,
they’re actually using electronics,
all these female musicians,
and they go for the experiment.
They really have a lot of energy, they really have speed,
and something to say and they’re not afraid
to say it out loud.
They don’t hide behind their computers but dare to be sexy.

stay – go – come – sit – sit down – hold it – hold it,
get it, get it, drop it – nose it – drop it – come!

I love all these chicks, they just rock the place
and they scream their guts out and they break
their voices and their instruments.
They’re not ashamed to show who they are:
wonderful, beautiful persons – and smart!
And even not afraid to show their bodies!

Let her have it.

Say: “No”, say: “No”
Then say: “Red, drop it!” and praise her when she does.

Say: “Red, come, bring it!”,
and praise her when she does.
Lightly slap Red’s nose, tell her she’s bad, she’s bad,
and remove the sock from her mouth.

Yes, let them have it…
Let them take over the electronic world…
Let the chicks take over the music biz,
with their physiques, their moves, their glamour,
their tits and their asses…

stay – go – come – sit – sit down – hold it –
hold it, get it, get it, drop it – nose it – drop it – come!

POLSTER

I like you but I cannot ride you,
why can’t you be only a little bit like a horse
or at least like a cow or better than nothing like a car?

Fly, flow, flee me!
Fly, flow, flee, fly flow flee me!

Where is the position I can sit on you, Polster,
where is your body, buddy?

Stick and stay without a key
Would you get into my knee,
Bring it down please to the ground
While it drives you to my mound

Wann werden wir den Fummel zusammen tragen?
Den Fellfummel mit 4 Ein – und 2 Ausgängen;
Der mit dem grossen Segelbein für 3 –
Wie werden wir hinein kommen, und wie hinaus?

I liked you but I couldn’t ride you
You couldn’t be like a horse, you couldn’t be like a cow
and you could not even be like a car.
Pff!

DER TONANGEBER UND DIE TANZENDEN TONABNEHMER

Ich bin der Tonangeber
Ich bin der Klanghalter
Ich bin der Halter ohne Halfter
Ich bin der Lachsack
Ich bin der Fetischist mit Twist
Ich bin der Krampfsack
Ich bin der Lachhalter
Ich bin der Klangsack
Ich bin der Krampfhalter
Ich bin der Fetischist mit Twist
Ich bin die elektrische Blume

MY ALPHABET

A is for Anus and Angel
B is for Beard
C is for Chap, Charm and Comrade
D is for Dentures, Dildo and Dike
E is for Exquisite
F is for Face flannel and Fabulous
G is for Gastronomy and Gambling
H is for Hallucinatory and Hunting
I is for Island
J is for Jacousy
K is for King and cravat-needle

This is my alphabet, my alphabet in pant suit
This is my alphabet, the Trouser Semaphore

L is for Leisure and Lesbian
M is for Mellowing with age and Mescaline
N is for No reason
O is for Oooh
P is for Pleasure and Pyjamas
Q is for Queer Quivering Quotidian
R is for Reckless
S is for Sublime… and Summer holiday…

Across the floor of a crowded cocktail gathering you too will be able to convey your innermost thoughts! Revolutionary sentiments and deepest needs to like minded individuals, Using nothing more than the flexibility of your physique andthe ruff pliability of your trouser cloth! Surely there is no sight more moving than a man and three square yards of carefully tailored cavalry twill, moving in perfect harmony!

T is for Toilet water and Tentative Tentacle
U is for Upper-lip shrubbery
V is for Vanity and Vulgaroisy
W is for Weeping and Wrestling
X is for X chromosome
Y is for Yacht and
Z is for Zoo

engl.

„I remember being about ten years old when I told my mom and dad that I thought Stubby, our dog, and Stella, my grandmother, had the same cute eyes and facial expressions. Upon hearing her mother-in-law being compared to a dog, my mom laughed with satisfaction, while my dad looked on in embarrassment.“

Here you can find the complete version of the text :
CatCalendar.pdf

Here you can find the complete version of the text :
Maximilian\’s Darkroom.pdf

Essay first published in the June journal Multitudes (nr 21, p.107-116), for which Ludovic Burel and Myriam van Imschoot made a special issue on scores and notations. The text was an accompanying essay to a collection of materials from Vincent Dunoyer, William Forsythe, Thomas Lehmen, Jérôme Bel, Myriam Gourfink, Antonia Baehr, Lisa Nelson, Jonathan Burrows & Matteo Fargion.
RestsInPieces_Myriam VanImschoot.pdf

On this website you can find a french version of the texte : RestinPieces.fr

Text about Werner Hirsh written by Marc Siegel in 2007
RidiculousWerner.pdf

A conversation with Myriam Van Imschoot and Ludovic Burel (2005)“ published on Oralsite (2011)

Oral Site is a new open source software and platform that Myriam Van Imschoot initiated as part of her artistic work on orality, transmission and interview archives. In 2011 it has been developed by a team of coders, writers and sound specialists of Sarma, Constant and Rits, who share an interest in oral and experimental publication formats.
The annotated interview „Antonia Baehr on Scores“ is part of the publication “What\’s the Score Publication”. It was edited by Tom Engels, Myriam Van Imschoot.

fr.
Text by the French dancer and choreographer Valérie Castan about the performance „Un après-midi“. Written after the presentations at the festival „100 Dessus Dessous“ in Paris in April 2005.

Here you can find the text in a pdf version :
texteVCastan.pdf

Essay reflecting on Antonia Baehr’s and Henry Wilt’s performance „Un après-midi.“ It was first published in Frakcija, Performing Arts Magazine, Vol. 36, Summer 2005, pp. 126 -137.

Here you can find the text in a pdf version :
Petra Sabisch – Solo for reading bodies.pdf

Program of „Un après-midi\‘ for the evening of the 22.03.13 for the „make up – At Antonia Baehr and Werner Hirsch\’s Table“, in Beursschouwburg, Brussels

First page of the program.pdf
Second page of the program.pdf

engl.
„Here we stand holding hands. You are so cute – and you are too. We have obviously different personalities but we are holding on to and beholden to each other. Sometimes I think our hair is really the same color. But your center of gravity is somewhere else than mine. The more synchronized we appear, the more differences get visible. Whose will are we following? We form a singular organism with one or two minds.“

Here you can find the text in a pdf version:
HoldingHandsI.pdf

engl.
„We work as a duo and switch places between director and performer from rehearsal to rehearsal, developing two shows simultaneously and cross-influencing each other\’s work.“

Here you can find a English and German Version of the text:

English version:
Holding Hands.pdf

German version:
Holding hands de.pdf

Interview in french on „Holding Hands“ and „Without You I Am Nothing“ with Antonia Baehr and William Wheeler lead by Gilles Amalvi for the festival Rencontres Chorégraphique Internationales de Seine-Sant-Denis in 2003

Here you can find the complete interview in a pdf version: InterviewbyGillesAmalvi.pdf

Interview with Yvanne Chapuis in the french review „Questions d\’artistes“ number II, november/december 2011 publication. The magazin is created by Le collège des Bernandins.

Here you can find the complete interview in a pdf version: Questions d\’artistes n°II -Holding Hands/ Withous you, I am nothing-.pdf

„In Without you, I am Nothing, voice and speech, body and mind are uniquely tied together in the singing of the opera diva.“

The stage is white with a long white curtain in the back, the same as in Holding hands but the neons are replaced with theatrical lighting. On the stage is a golden chair with a microphone on it, a small amplifier, a theremin, and black cables connecting all these things, creating a tight triangle. Antonia, the diva, enters in a lovely sparkly gown, sits down in the chair and delivers a hypnosis text based on a fantasy of being in love with and performing for a queen. She speaks a little sideways to an audience which will choose either to sink into her fantasies and suggestions or to detach themselves and listen, scrutenizing the text and the scenario. After she finishes her hypnosis, she lip-synchs to William playing Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘Tu che le vanitá’ on the theremin, making the theremin sound like an operatic soprano voice. Seeing and hearing, disbelief and wanting to believe are all combined. Musician/instrument, text/speech, audience/vision in general become blurred.
Logic dances in a field of flowers for a moment, and something like a trance is made possible.

“Sometimes I wish I could take my voice out of my body and put it in a box so that it could be independent of me. . . . I envy other musicians whose instruments are not inside or dependent on their bodies. We singers have to take constant care of ourselves and control our emotional state in case it affects The Voice.“ (‘Diva: Great Sopranos and Mezzos Discuss Their Art’ by Helena Matheopoulos 1991)

June Anderson, soprano and diva, finds a charming way to say that, actually, she would rather be nothing but a diva. She recognizes the unstable, mystical and cataclysmic proportions of her body and notes that at any moment she may explode with tragedy or rise to the heavens on a cloud of pink sparkles. . . . She tricks us into thinking that she has no grasp on metaphysics; that she is unable to have out-of-body experiences. . . . She knows she is a musician and that her instrument is her voice. Her body is a battle-ground. She would walk out on any important performance attended by kings and presidents to protect her voice. Her voice is at once her tool for labor and the horn of her soul. Her body’s voice is her soul’s voice: Her body is her soul and vice versa.

William Wheeler