j'écris + je crie — a splited score inspired by C.Sch.
performance
* from the script *
announcement by Sibylle Omlin
Her performances establish an ongoing narrative in her work. From her scripts, material archives and historical documents, Dorothea Rust creates performances that inscribe an idiosyncratic narration between body and text, voice and quotation, dance and performance history into the space. She works with objects, gestures, sentences and words that she researches or receives as gifts.
concept «j'écris + je crie»
For the performance in the context of the exhibition project «Performance Writing» by Sibylle Omlin, I was guided by the title of the project and decided to work with an unknown (historical) model/score by Carolee Schneemann, «Chromelodeon, 4th Concretion».
The score «Chromelodeon, 4th Concretion» was conceived by Carolee Schneemann in 1963 for a performance with six performers - Deborah Hay, Carol Summers, Lucinda Childs, Ruth Emerson, John Worden and Carolee Schneemann. It was performed as part of the Judson Dance Concert 7, on June 24, 1963, at the Judson Memorial Church in New York. James Tenney, a pioneer in the field of electronic music, composed the music collage for the performance. The score for the performance of «Chromelodeon» appealed to me because it is not one of the most famous works (like «Interior Scroll» and «Meat Joy») by Carolee Schneemann. It also shows in an exemplary way that the artistic strategies of the 'Judson Group artists/choreographers' were not only distanced and conceptual, as is often generally perceived. The work of Carolee Schneemann stands for the diversity of 'Judson'. With «Kinetic Theatre», Carolee Schneemann created her own terminology for her performative approach, which she saw as an extension of painting.
I did not want to transfer the score "Chromelodeon, 4th Concretion" into a re-enactment, but to continue writing it. What moved me to do so is the kind of physical and emotional involvement that is inscribed in Carolee Schneemann's works, as well as the surplus of sensual material and guidelines that arises when reading her score.
With «j'écris + je crie», I have approached the 1960s - a time of (re)breaking up social codes - and its visions, as well as wanting to expose myself and the audience to the sensuality and complexity in the interplay of body and material. Especially the latter aspect should lead me to write a 'new' score. How would I deal with this? And how would an inherent sensual materiality that is possible in the score be revealed? How would the effect of Carolee Schneemann's then explicitly feminine devotion and emotionality feel today in the male-dominated art field of that time?
I 'split' the score of Carolee Schneemann. The result is two fragmented scores: one on which with a black felt-tip pen all the instructions for moving props such as clothes, objects, colours, light and sound collage have been crossed out, and on the other with all the instructions for movement crossed out. The fragmented score, on which the moving props have not been crossed out in black and are therefore legible, has been taken into account by me. In advance I selected and procured material according to the text. For this I wrote a script, i.e. a 'new' score.
The score of Carolee Schneemann, which I had fragmented in this way, I read out in the performance. It has been a guardrail and has caused me to reactivate the material accordingly. Both the fragmented score of Carolee Schneemann and my script were in the true sense of the word an excessiv demand, a «too much». To work through them alone 'today', 53 years later, in the Kunstraum Kreuzlingen, i.e. to read Carolee Schneemann's fragmented score out loud and to transpose it according to my script at the same time, has been almost overwhelming. Therefore the audience was also involved in the production with clothes, colours, light, food and sound collage. A situation has arisen between lecture, performance and workshop.
script as leporello ... full script, page by page ... Caroline Schneemann's score adapted
