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:

Λόρι Αντερσον (UPDATED)

That bunch of characters in the title is the Greek translation of "Laurie Anderson" - just my sad attempt to be in style since Laurie performs 'Delusion' in Athens tonight ("one of my favourite places in the whole world", she says). In a recent interview made by ESC TV (Greek tv show) she recalls her memories of working on the 2004 Olympics ceremony in Athens, and talks about 'Delusion' and her alter-ego Fenway Bergamot:

UPDATE: a bunch of photos of 'Delusion' in Athens where Fenway Bergamot's section had an extra reference to the then-current protests on Athens' Syntagma square as a special one-time update (thanks for the vigilance, timeiswide!).

'Delusion' in Athens, Greece
Badminton Theater, June 8, 2011
photo by Alexandra Katsarou 

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:

"Make your travel plans now."

I'm not sure if there exists a phrase like that in English but I can't help saying it: if the following didn't exist, it should have been invented.

What the hell, you're asking, Dearreader?

Laurie Anderson as the voice of a planetarium. For real. Holy cr*p, this is so her. Me wants to go to Chicago, I mean, right now (hoping the show is still running). (No, of course it's not in the programme anymore.)

This video is a trailer for Time/Space, Adler Planetarium's animated show on the past and the future of the Cosmos, produced in 2005, narrated by Laurie Anderson:

(extra: a press release of the show from a previous version of Laurie's website)

When the Musician Meets the Explorer

"For me, art is about being able to see something or hear something in a really concentrated, focused way. It's not the stuff you put into museums. [...] To me, art is about being able to pay attention to the ocean sound that we live in, to start with, and the incredible things that we're seeing. And artists draw your attention to those things."

(Laurie Anderson at the Explorers Club in NYC, April 2011)

The Explorers Club uploaded their video of 'Music & Exploration – The Avant-garde Meets Exploration', a conversation between Laurie Anderson and David Rothenberg, recorded on April 25th, 2011:

The topics of the discussion were (amongst others): why animals sing, Laurie's concert for dogs in Sydney, researching dolphins' "talk", Lolabelle's illness and music therapy (alas, she has recently passed away :( ), the Estuarium ("it's great taking a dog to a fish museum" - L. A.), Laurie's rage against mp3 ("a horrible solution [for compressing audio data], crushing music to nothing"), a moving story about parrots' musical memory in a Vietnamese village; regret, image interpretation and self-expression - and many more.

Beruf: _ *

"Ich kann machen was ich will." **

(Laurie Anderson on the benefits of her career choice to be a multimedia artist)

Zdf.kulturpalast's coverage of Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' in Germany - after Berlin / before Hamburg:

* Beruf = occupation
** "[I] can do whatever [I] feel like."

Eine Kulturikone in Krems

A short reportage about / interview with Laurie Anderson in Krems an der Donau, Austria (attention: it's overdubbed in German):

Only in Case You've Got 25 Minutes. Seriously.

May 1st 2011: Laurie Anderson's dramatic reading of James Salter’s short story, "Raphael" - a trademark andersonite multimedia presentation held amid Julião Sarmento's exhibition "Artists and Writers/House and Home" at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton whatever blablabla.


Now...

1. Lights off.
2. A [...] of [...] at hand. (You name it.)
3. Play button.
4. Full screen.
5. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, on the GRIT...

"I would love "explorer" but on my passport it just says "artist". [...] I try to just be a good journalist, really, and look at what's going on. [...] I'm a storyteller. I'm not tapdancing around, I don't do that. Maybe I'm fooling myself. Hm..."

(Laurie Anderson's attempts of self-description to Laura Flanders, 2011)

Nostalgia, techno humiliation, art and politics, alter-egos as ways of escape, Laurie Anderson's saddest musical experience and many-many more in Laura Flanders' recent interview on GRIT tv:

P. S.: Hm. Looks like the original Talking Stick is still in the hands of Homeland Security.

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

Loscha in Krems

May 2011: Laurie Anderson tells the story of the Ugly One with the Jewels in Krems an der Donau, Austria. Along with German translation in the background:

Storytelling in the North

October 2008: while passing along the shores of Canada on board of Grigory Mikheev (an arctic research vessel), Laurie Anderson tells a story of an old Cree Indian man singing the forgotten song of his fathers':

FYI: This video is an excerpt of the documentary film titled 'Burning Ice', directed by Peter Gilbert.

The whole film is available for free at Snagfilms.

The Charlie Rose Interview, 2003

"She does everything. She writes. She paints. She does photography. She sculpts. There's nothing she can't do. She is the absolute perfect person to go up there because she could come back to you and could put it in any kind of media you wanted."

(Lou Reed on Laurie Anderson's artistry-in-residence at NASA)

In May 2003 Laurie Anderson and Lolabelle joined Lou Reed at Charlie Rose's interview table (apparently to everybody's satisfaction). Their conversation rambled from 'NYC Man' (Lou Reed's then-recently released retrospective song collection), through Andy Warhol, to the aspects of the relationship between Lou and Laurie.

(FYI: This video had been hosted by Google and was 'rescued' to YouTube since Google has recently gave up video hosting.)

Mabou Mines Benefit

Speaking about recent public appearances: Laurie Anderson invited Fenway Bergamot to perform at the Mabou Mines Benefit at Paula Cooper Gallery:

FYI: This is a resized and cut version of the original video by Andy Horwitz, which can be found here.

When the Avant-garde Met Exploration

Read Galfromdownunder's review of a recent public conversation between Laurie Anderson and David Rothenberg at the Explorer's Club.

By the way, David Rothenberg is the guy who made 'Why Birds Sing' (2007), a BBC documentary that featured some enchanting and heartwarming (although, as far as I remember, mildly scientific) theories about birds' singing. Laurie was one of the interviewees, and in this excerpt she tells about her spellbinding concert experience with an owl:

The Charlie Rose Interview, 2004

"... But the real reason I wanted to walk to Paris [from Milan] was because I was trying to think about how to be free - 'cause that's really the only thing I care about now... Learn to be free from my prejudices, my patterns, my ideas of what I think is 'good' or 'bad' - just trying to not react to them automatically, and to open my eyes and see what I'm really seeing, not just what I think I'm going to see or what I think should be seen."

"I'm trying not to have a goal, but just to think about how it feels to pay attention."

(Laurie Anderson, 2004)

As part of my Google video rescue project, I'm happy to include here my personal favourite interview with Laurie Anderson: as Charlie Rose's guest in May 2004, she talked about (among others) her Japanese garden project, the importance of freedom, her method of 'working', the walking project / audio diary that later evolved into 'Nothing in My Pockets', and she gave a short demonstration of the Pillow Speaker. Plus, at that time she was still being NASA's resident artist. Sigh.

For Japan with Love: the Concert

Relief! Japan Society published their record of the performance by John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed (this time supported by a Japanese drummer) at the benefit concert for Japan:

(Hint: enjoy it in its full HD glory on YouTube.)