A Valentine’s Day Dedication
14 February, 2009
Sant’Andrea degli Amplificatori, Bologna
Solo concert for voice, controlled feedback, 2-channel open-reel tape and active room refrigerator
Produced by Luciano Maggiore, Dominique Vaccaro and Domenico Grenci
In the coldest season of the year with subzero temperatures outside, an industrial room refrigerator steadily turns the air of the windowless basement space from cold to colder, then colder still. The room is lit by a single candle, extinguished when the audience has finished moving in to sit on the tile floor. In total darkness, they hear these words repeat and fade from the tape looped across the ceiling:
There must be a way across this river
A corridor leads to a descending ramp,
to a larger chamber,
to another corridor,
always sloping downward.
The temperature grows colder as we descend,
moving deeper underground.
The cold becomes unbearable.
We turn around to go back —
but the corridor has changed,
turned into larger rooms that lead
to a vast, cavernous sanctuary,
a place of worship,
much larger than any structure we have ever imagined.
The entire hall is deserted.
The air is warm but the devotion to worship feels naïve;
to grow it is necessary to move on.
Now I find myself with a woman I know and do not know,
my tongue sliding slowly inside her,
taking pleasure from giving her pleasure.
Poster design by Domenico Grenci