24/2/2010
Anthony Marcellini
Different venues, Berlin
Berlin, Open Your Windows is a project using open apartment windows as platforms for a series of temporary public declarations. From these windows a trained opera singer will project sung declarations in German regarding the city of Berlin to the passersby below.
"The moment finally arrives...Oh, come, don't be late."*
Berlin, Open Your Windows is a project using open apartment windows as platforms for a series of temporary public declarations. From these windows a trained opera singer will project sung declarations in German regarding the city of Berlin to the passersby below.
These declarations are being presented from apartments in several distinct neighborhoods throughout Berlin: Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, Mitte and Prenzlauerberg. The content of each declaration is based on details specific to each neighborhood; drawn from interviews with tenants, news stories, historical and literary references, and the artist's own personal impressions and reflections on this city.
Anthony Marcellini (Gothenburg, Sweden)
About
"With my work, I aim to create spaces where people come together to understand themselves in relationship with the world. While I utilize many forms of communication and expression, I am especially interested in performance, gesture, speech and theater, because these are forms that deal most directly with our human behavior. Furthermore, my practice takes place in multiple sites—the gallery, public space, publications, the Internet—all of which are social spaces, whether they are demarcated by a frame, a page, a platform, gallery walls, borders and boundaries, or words and gestures."
Read more on his homepage: http://blog.anthonymarcellini.info
----project: Berlin, open your windows!
While in Berlin Anthony Marcellini will create an auditory public space using temporary platforms for a series of public declarations. Written by him and performed by an opera singer from open windows of several apartment buildings throughout Berlin, these libretto declarations shall reflect the history, the dreams, the tribulations and the triumphs of each neighborhood.
"Berlin, Open Your Windows is a project using open apartment windows as platforms for a series of temporary public declarations. From these windows an opera singer will project declarations regarding the changing city of Berlin to the passersby below. Because opera singers are trained to project their voices to large audiences without the aid of mechanical amplification, the street audience will hear these declarations clearly and loudly. This classical form of communication, which is not normally heard outside of the concert hall or music school, will also increase the performance’s conspicuousness, prompting greater awareness and attention from the curious listener.
These declarations will be presented from apartments throughout several distinct neighborhoods in Berlin. The content of these declarations will be focused on details specific to each neighborhood; drawn from interviews with tenants, news stories, historical and literary references, and the artist's own personal reflections. The aim is to make information, opinions and perspectives of a neighborhood audible, through a public, though somewhat romantic and ephemeral, form. The project evokes past lyrical and performative methods of public declaration, like the pronouncements of town criers or the poems of the Schutting performers, broadcast during the Fasnet celebrations in southern Germany. It is the hope that these declarations will be received as curious anomalies, moments that will urge the transitory listener to pause and question what they have heard and reconsider the city around them."
Anthony Marcellini
Each performance will begin exactly at the stated time. It will last no longer than 5 minutes. Each performance will only be presented once.
Schedule
Thursday, February 25th: Kreuzberg
Address: Lausitzer Straße 12, 10999
Performance: 16:00
Friday, February 26th: Friedrichshain
Address: Weserstraße 25, 10247
Performance: 18:30
Friday, February 26th: Mitte
Address: Linienstraße 131, 10115
Performance: 24:00
Saturday, February 27th: Prenzlauerberg
Address: Kastanienallee 73, 10435
Performance: 15:00
Berlin Open Your Windows has been made possible through a residency at Sparwasser HQ.
Thank you to Emily Dirks for lending your sonorous voice.
*Susanna's recitative and aria from Le Nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Opening Thursday, February 25th, 16h
Differents venues, Berlin