rainforest_up_in_the_air

May 25, 2004 at 9pm Liveperformance
May 26-28, 2004   daily from 7-9pm

Studio Sylvie Proidl
Schottenfeldgasse 76/2
A-1070 Vienna, Austria

The topic of this performance is the primary or virgin forest. The installation SHADOWED LIGHT is showing the dangers that humans face in the rainforest and how the forest is threatened by humans. This is combined with a music piece for theremin and saxophone especially composed for this event by Hannes Heher, titled NIGHT PIECE #1.
In Part 1, the moving light installation, the shadowed reflections of the individual threats are blended out, leaving only the fragile, naked humans. The shadow machine moves very slowly across the transparent steles, and with each passing it changes the illuminated sector where the motion stops.
In Part 2, the threats to the rainforest, a large-format landscape is overlaid with a transparent veil that bears a skeletal rainforest in white. The broken shadow is thrown on the logged landscape. The dusty red-earth road symbolizes the human impact and the permanent damage we have inflicted.
The atmospheric component is provided by the airy tones emitted by the theremin, an instrument the musician plays by moving his hands in an electronic field. The theremin player Wilfried Glas creates the tones invisibly - the air conveys the notes to us. The saxophonist Sabine Zwick musically comments the theremin, but adds notes of uncertainty and destructive elements. NIGHT PIECE #1 completes on the one hand the installation by adding a positive acoustic element. On the other hand, its brittle phrases underline our grief at having lost something irreplaceable.

link: Hannes Heher