MY DOG IS MY PIANO

engl.

My Dog is My Piano

a sonic lecture-performance

One of them is quick, the other slow, one gulps down his food, the other one savours it, one of them is at the beginning of his life, the other one started her last quarter, one knows her ancestors of at least six generations, the other one is unaware until his grandparents, and both have metal ends in their bodies.
Tocki von Arnim and Bettina von Arnim live together in the same house. They do not speak the same language, they are hardly alike and yet, they have assembled.
In My Dog is My Piano, Antonia Baehr sketches a subjective acoustic portrait of the affinity between her mother and her dog: can the house they share be read as the music score of the stories of canine-human living together? What kind of language emerges from this long duet of everyday comings and goings, of these choreographies of affinities?

fr.

My Dog is My Piano

une conférence sonore

L’un est rapide, l’autre lente, l’un englouti sa nourriture, l’autre la déguste, l’une coud, l’autre se gratte, l’un est au début de sa vie, l’autre a entamé son dernier quart, l’une connaît ses ancêtres d’au moins six générations en amont, l’autre ignore jusqu’à ses grand-parents, les deux ont des bouts de métal dans le corps. Tocki von Arnim et Bettina von Arnim vivent ensemble dans la même maison depuis près de quatre ans. Tocki et Bettina ne parlent pas la même langue, ne se ressemblent en presque rien, et se sont pourtant assemblé(e)s. « My Dog is My Piano » trace un portrait acoustique et subjectif de l’affinité entre ma mère et son chien. Comment se parlent les deux ? Comment les harmonies et dissonances de leur « patois », langage bricolé qu’uni et désuni ces deux êtres d’espèces différentes, vibrent-elles ? Comment la maison qui abrite leur vie commune porte-t-elle les traces de leur cohabitation, et celles de tous ces humains et chiens qu’elle a hébergé depuis son existence ? Puis-je la lire comme la partition des histoires de la vie commune canino-humaine, de ce long duo de va-et-vient quotidiens, de ces chorégraphies d’affinités ?

My Dog Is My Piano

Concept, Composition, Performance: Antonia Baehr
Dramaturgical advice: Valérie Castan
Sound: Fred Bigot
Light Design: Sylvie Garot, Rima Ben-Brahim
Sound Mastering: Angela Anderson
Organiser: Alexandra Wellensiek
Production: make up productions
With the support of: FAR° festival des arts vivants (Nyon)
Thanks to: Bettina von Arnim, Tocki von Arnim, Donna J. Haraway, François Noudelmann, Avital Ronell, Gertrude Stein, Villa Gillet / Walls and Bridges NYC. Infinite Affinities – Chords and Discords
Premiere: 10./11.08.12
Duration: ca. 50min.

Antonia Baehr son je est un jeu by Jonas Pulver, Le temps, 9.08.2012

LE TEMPS, 9.08.12

Le corps engagé d‘ Hugues le Tanneur (Extrait de Les inrockuptibles sur le festival Mode dxemploi – Un festival des idées.)

Le corps engagé.pdf

Antonia Baehr, Yves-Noël Genod, Le Dispariteur (blog), 20.06.13

fr.

AntoniaBaehr.pdf

Singularities, Dance in the Age of Performance, André Lepecki

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

Traces of Places: My Dog is My Piano, Introduction by Anneliese Ostertag (warehouse industries)

Tocki and Bettina von Arnim live together in the same house. They do not speak the same language, they are hardly alike and yet, they have assembled.

An introduction written by Anneliese Ostertag as part of the online publication of My Dog is My Piano by warehouse industries.

Here is the link to the online publication by warehouse industries.

My Dog is My Piano, Nanna Heidenreich

de.

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