The Queen of Performance in Norway

Towards the end of June 2011, Laurie Anderson took a slight right on her way home from the Middle East and headed for the North. She stopped by the tiny little town of Harstad in Norway, walked right into the Kulturhus and told some adventure stories by herself on stage, accompanied by accidental fiddling and random toying around on some keyboards in-between - just another day in the life of the Queen of Performance.

She also shared some words of wisdom regarding, among others, the reason why she does not use Facebook:

Luckily, some pro photographer happened to be around and shot a couple of pictures - like this one:

"No more friends." Laurie Anderson performing 'Transitory Life'

June 23rd 2011, Harstad, Norway
photo by hennum.foto.com

On the Return of the Cultural Ambassador

In June 2011 Laurie took 'Delusion' to Israel where she seems to be a welcome returning guest.

(FYI, here's "Laurie Anderson" written in Hebrew characters - took some time for me to find them in the texts but then it made my research process for reviews and all kinds of media coverage a lot easier:

לורי אנדרסון

- yeah, you should read this from right to left.)



For starters, let's see a review with photos and videos of a public conversation with artists Yali Sobol and Sigalit Landau (relax - the URL I included is the English translation of the original text):

If somebody asked her to design a religion,
she would make it all about snow.

Laurie Anderson in Tel-Aviv, Israel, June 2011
photo by Assaf Alboher

Here's an interview from an Israeli tv channel (probably named NANA10). The show is called 'London & Kirschenbaum', and the conversation took place on June 16, 2011. The interviewers were Yaron London and Assaf Amdursky. Laurie also gave the microphone over to Fenway Bergamot for a while during the interview, and gave a short demonstration of the sound of her filtered violin:

The concert in Mann Auditorium left its mark on the Israeli audience. Here's a vast bunch of reviews, translated into English via Google Translator:

• Bedtime Stories - text by Guy Hajaj, photos by Dudu Azulaj
• Hallucinatory Mushroom - text by Yuval Kfsoto, photos by Dana Shimoni
• A Mesmerizing Storyteller - text by Idan Hguel, photo by Meir Luger
• Bored to Death - text by Zahi Yeshurun
• More Theatrical Than Musical - text, big photos and a video
• Less Tight and Perfect Than Others, But Much Human - text by Elliot, photo by Orit Pearls (?)
• Not for Music Fans - a review and a photo in Haaretz

... well, maybe they missed the stage bombs or so.


Anyway, there was at least one enthusiastic audience member who didn't mind to share some videos taken in a tender night:

The very last things you say in life...

Notes from a dream diary:

Thinking of you under the dandelions:

A story on the Moon and Fenway's section:

A story from Iceland:

The finale:

The encore:

From A'dam with Luv

Laurie Anderson's Delusion was part of this year's Holland Festival in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Reviews of the show were mixed - some would have fancied more music, and some were just bored and wished for a little less Laurie Anderson clones in the audience. Some of the lucky ones took a walk with Laurie in the streets of Amsterdam:

Jeroen Visser and Laurie Anderson

Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 2011

Some of the other lucky ones had a close encounter of the third kind with Fenway Bergamot himself sitting in a shopping window of de Bijenkorf (big warehouse in Amsterdam's Dam Square):

Fenway Bergamot, wearing a Chaplin hat and a HollandFestival jacket,
chatted with Lieven Bertels (artistic coordinator of HollandFestival)

Fenway Bergamot happily announced his intention of 

being candidate for the next President of the United States

Throwing an approving glance

at his enthusiastically cheering audience outside the shopwindow.

All photos by Mnemosyne

And, finally, a video to break your heart, too: an excerpt of the Dandelion scene from Delusion in Amsterdam:

"Alguma vez amas-me verdadeiramente?"

PSA: For the sake of accuracy, I'm trying to cover all the (more-or-less) European venues which got graced by Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' during the summer of 2011.


If you read Portuguese, here is a review of 'Delusion' in Porto from June 2011. Text by Marta Ribeiro, along with some photos by Victor Fernandes. Like this one:

"That's a really good dog. I like that dog."
'Delusion' by Laurie Anderson, June 5, 2011
Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal 

Retrospect 1.0: The Updated Posts

First of all, I decided to update some of the previous posts. I'm doing it this way since I wouldn't want to break up the one-post-one-topic consistency which, more or less, characterized the posts of Files on a String in the past. It's not handy, it's not convenient but it's for the sake of logic (and, um, proportion, whatevs). So, here is the list:

• 'Delusion' in the UK: Read - a review of 'Transitory Life' and the public conversation in Brighton (UK) added

• 'Delusion' in Germany: Read. Look. (Part Two) - one review from Dresden, two more from Kassel / Hofgeismar, plus a video with interview excerpts recorded in Kassel added

• El sistema de l'ase i la pastanaga - a photo gallery from Girona (Spain) added

• Λόρι Αντερσον - a photo gallery from Athens (Greece) added

El sistema de l'ase i la pastanaga (UPDATED)

Click to the picture below for a short video coverage of Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' in Girona, Spain:

the donkey-and-the-carrot system in Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion'

Girona, Spain, June 2011

UPDATE: bel bosCk Studio!'s surrealistically stylized photo set from Girona (click to the photo):

It's always raining in her dreams

'Delusion' in Germany: Read. Look. (Part Two) (UPDATED)

Again: the titles in bold take you to the original articles (written in German), the English titles after the = signs link to their translation into English by Google. All links open in new windows.


Dresden:

• Traum ohne Deutung und mit Transformationen
  = Dream Without Meaning and with Transformations
  (Matthias Zwarg / Freie Presse)

• UPDATE: Begegnung mit der Performance-Künstlerin Laurie Anderson vor ihrem Auftritt im Festspielhaus Hellerau
  = Encounter with Performance Artist Laurie Anderson before Her Appearance at Festspielhaus Hellerau
  (Dresdner Neuesten Nachrichten)

Kassel / documenta Archiv:

• Laurie Anderson zeigt "delusion"
  = Laurie Anderson Presents 'Delusion'
  (Hessischer Rundfunk online)

• Visionen und Erinnerungen - Laurie Andersons "Delusion"
  = Visions and Memories - Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion
  (Kurt U. Heldmann / 24pr.de - with photos under the title 'Fotostrecke')

• documenta-Archiv feiert Laurie Anderson - Pionierin der Träume
  = Documenta Archive Celebrates Laurie Anderson - Pioneer of Dreams
  (Gaby Sohl / die tageszeitung)

• Auftritt Laurie Anderson
  = Laurie Anderson's Performance
  (Dirk Schwarze - with photos of the public conversation of May 29th)
  

Laurie Anderson in Hofgeismar / Kassel, Germany, May 2011

(photo by Dirk Schwarze)

• Wo die Sterne funkelten
  = Where the Stars Twinkled
  (Mark-Christian von Busse / Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine Zeitung)

• Große Themen, kleine Episoden, kluge Gedanken
  = Big Issues, Small Episodes, Intelligent Thoughts
  (Göttinger Tageblatt)

• UPDATE: Auf der dunklen Seite des Mondes
  = On the Dark Side of the Moon
  (Gaby Sohl / die Tageszeitung)

• UPDATE: Laurie Anderson und wir in Kassel
  = Laurie Anderson and Us in Kassel
  (framboise / Katzenblog - another review and more photos from the public conversation of May 29)

• UPDATE: Mediaartbase – Das erste digitale Kunst-Archiv
  = Mediaartbase - The First Digital Art Archive
  arte tv's reportage, featuring interview excerpts with Laurie Anderson, saved for posterity on my YouTube channel:

'Delusion' in Germany: Look (Updated)

Laurie Anderson performing 'Delusion'

Berlin, Germany, May 2011

photo by Barbara Muerdter / Popkontext

More photos from Berlin:

• by Barbara Muerdter at Popkontext
• by Charlotte Jäckel at [030] Magazin Berlin
• by Michael Huebner at Flickr
• by Frank Hoensch at Gettyimages
• NEW: by Christian Behring

UPDATED: More from Krems

Two Four more excerpts of 'Transitory Life' in Krems an der Donau, Austria:

First, the frantic instrumental ending of the concert:

And 'Flow', the mesmerizing reprise violin solo:

Fenway Bergamot's first section: a specialized German-Austrian version ("should I buy a second BMW?") of 'Mambo and Bling' - you'll appreciate it especially if you're interested in the German translation of the piece since the video features mostly the subtitles on the background screen:

'Hey Ah', the story of the old Cree Indian, plus Loscha, the 'Ugly One with the Jewels':

UPDATE#2: Here's Donaufestival's official press photo album of the 5th of May - click below for more photos of Laurie's performance:

Laurie Anderson performing 'Transitory Life'

Krems an der Donau, Austria, May 2011

photo by Florian Schulte

From Krems with Luv

Donaufestival, May 2011

Krems an der Donau, Austria

photos by Mnemosyne

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Music in Poetry. In Photos

PEN Festival 2011: Poetry: The Second Skin

Photo by Beowulf Sheehan

By clicking on the photo above, you can flip through an extensive photo gallery of the Poetry section of this year's PEN Festival. The event, titled The Second Skin, took place on April 29, 2011 in New York City, with the main theme of "exploring the porous borders between poetry and music" - quite suitably to its curator and emcee.

Scenes from 'Delusion'

Detail of Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' postcard set

Photo by Darek J.

Click to the picture above for a photo gallery of the 'Delusion' postcard set: scenes from the performance selected, captioned and signed by Laurie Anderson. Photos taken and kindly provided for the blog by Darek. Thanks a lot!

Current State of Mind of an Universalkünstlerin*

"Today I'm working on a short little poem that I've been thinking about, I have a drawing to finish, and I have a little projection work. This is the kind of hell my life is: doesn't one piece relate to the other one that much. I mean maybe that's great but sometimes it feels little disconnecting. On the other hand, that's just the way things are."


"Do I think art can change the world? I don't have any idea. Politicians can change politics - so can artists? I don't know. I'm a little bit pessimistic at the moment, to tell you the truth."


"[...] "The triumph of capitalism, here it is. Okay. One thing to do: get famous, get rich. That's the game. Good luck and see you later." - That's really harsh, and it's in every field in many ways. Artists are the same thing: we are encouraged to compete rather than to cooperate. And that's not a kind of world I dream of living in."


"I'm a journalist at heart. I like to try to see how things really work-- not make it up, not fantasize. That's a very hard thing to tell a story that is true. It's easy to find a good punchline. But everybody knows that most punchlines smell a little bad... they're clever, okay, but if you really try to tell a story: our lives are so messy. They don't have good punchlines, they don't have ways that they end very neatly. I think a lot of people, myself included, would like to find a way to see the world really clearly, not to somebody's punchline or somebody's story but really how do other people do it."

(Four examples of Laurie Anderson's current state of mind, mid April 2011)

Laurie Anderson @ Canal Street, April 2011

Photo by Christian Lehner

Austrian radio FM4 has recently aired Christian Lehner's interview with Laurie Anderson on the occasion of Laurie's upcoming live appearance at the Donaufestival in Krems-an-der-Donau, Austria: on the 5th of May 2011 she will perform 'Transitory Life', a retrospective collection of her past stories.

The conversation touched on subjects like New York City in the 1970s vs. 2010s, record charts, art and politics, the making process of the 'Homeland' album, the linguistics behind its title, the current state of mind of New York City, last year's concert for dogs in Sydney and the origins of 'O Superman' and 'Another Day in America'.

The Laurie Anderson Spezialstunde** was part of 'New York State of Mind', FM4's interview series "on individuals who set up the Big Apple a little crown". More info on the conversation with the Universalkünstlerin (basically the German translation of the interview) and some photos of the session can be found here.

You can listen to the whole programme in FM4's online archive until the 4th of May:

• New York State of Mind, Issue #3: Laurie Anderson (audio length: 54 mins 8 secs, file size: 49.5 MB)

(FYI: don't worry if you missed the programme in the online archive: stay tuned for a stripped-down-and-cut-and-edited version of the interview here.)




* universal artist
** special hour

Talking Stick Returned Reproduced

Ha! Looks like the U. S. Government doesn't consider Laurie's batonlike MIDI instrument as a threat to state security* anymore: [a replica of] the Talking Stick is part of I in U / Eu em tu, the retrospective exhibition of Laurie Anderson's oeuvre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:

The Talking Stick in Rio

photo by Alexandra Lima

For more great photos and a description of the exhbition, click to Alexandra Lima's blog (the original Portuguese text is translated into English via Googe Translator).





* FYI: the Talking Stick, originally designed for Laurie's Moby Dick adaptation in 1998, was confiscated by the FBI during a zealous safety measure in 1999.

Thank You, B.

Thanks for the story about your father's horse.

Two of many

Uppsala, April 2010

What about That Dress?

"Not a story my people tell."

"One of the things that people have remarked on having seen [the 'Home of the Brave' concert film] was "now what about that dress?" Well, it is a chain metal dress that weighed about 70 pounds - that I were in 'Langue d'amour' - I could hardly hoist myself up onto this platform to walk back and forth and tell the story, so I had to wear sneakers, too. Well, if I had worn heels - what you really should wear with a dress like that - I would have been pile driving the spikes into the beam and just completely destroying this thing.

The song 'Langue d'amour' is of course about a woman and a snake, so I tried to be both narrators in that song: the gloves were supposedly the head and tail of this long snake who keeps slithering around.

[...]

I felt that since this was a story about the Garden of Eden - and this was a woman's story if there ever was one, I mean she initiated this action, Adam really just kinda stood around - so I figured since she was the main person in that story, she should tell it, so that's why I departed from my usual - as they say, androgynous - look to something more appropriate to that story."

(Laurie Anderson, 'Home of the Brave' promo interview, 1986)

Setting the Stage for 'Delusion'

By clicking to Laurie's projection above, you can browse through Seth Litroff's photo gallery from January 2010 when Laurie Anderson visited Bergen Community College (Paramus, NJ) for rehearsing for 'Delusion' which was to be premiered some weeks later at the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

Slide Show from Rio

The Talking Pillow being tested by its creator

By clicking to the photo above, you can watch a video (more of a slide show) made by Marcello Dantas, the curator of I in U / Eu em Tu, Laurie Anderson's retrospective exhibition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Painting with Light on an Enormous Canvas

Dead

stars

t  h  e  i  r    l i g h t    s  t  i  l  l

trapped

in time.

Light installation by Laurie Anderson

Sydney, Australia 2010
photo by huailimay

The picture above is part of this gorgeous photo gallery of Laurie Anderson's light installations on the sails of the Sydney Opera House during last year's VIVID Festival in Sydney, Australia.

Thanks to Darek for the URL!

More Ice from Rio

Laurie Anderson's skates in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 2011
photo by Cristina Granato

FYI: for more photos of the latest performance of 'Duets on Ice', click to the photo above.