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| (Photo: Peter Gannushkin; downtownmusic.net) |
"PLACES, OR: THE HAGUE INVASION ACT is a non-linear poem composed of a list of geographical, political, social, and theoretical spaces, written as free word association. The poem unfolds on the floor of the performance space, accompanied by a video of water, earth, and sky (filmed in Istanbul in 2006), a simple set of open form instructions for instrumental performers, and a simple choreography. The title is taken from a still extant 2002 act of the United States Congress that gives the US President the authority and discretion to command military action against the Dutch city of The Hague, pop. 500,000, if any US military personnel or political figures are brought before the international court there. (I lived in The Hague from 2001-2008, years when the US conducted extensive crimes against Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen.)
An audio waveform acts as the score and backdrop of DODGING BULLETS. Performers are given a limited set of gestures they can choose from in order to interact with and complete the score. They are asked not to rehearse, but to confront the work more or less in real-time. As they perform, they 'learn' the piece and make choices based on how they perceive each of the other performers' musical decisions. The title of this work is taken from a text visible onscreen, from from One is One (Preludes & Fugues), a collection of 48 performance texts composed between 2004 and 2008. In contemporary society, we are figuratively and literally dodging bullets all the time. This work reflects that reality, but allows the players to learn how to react over time, how to improvise a collective response that sounds, perhaps, a little less like dodging and a little more like firing back."
Saturday, July 20th, 2013
8PM, $12
Studio 34 Backspace
4523 Springfield Ave. (Behind Baltimore Ave.)
Philadelphia, PA
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