Allora & Calzadilla with Kaldor Art Projects
Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on ‘Ode to Joy’ for Prepared Piano is a performance work, devised by Puerto Rican-based artist collaborative duo Allora & Calzadilla, exhibiting in the State Library of Victoria’s Cowan Gallery for Kaldor Art Projects.
Allora & Calzadilla’s interdisciplinary practice often combines performance, sculpture, video and sound. Stop, Repair, Prepare integrates sound, performance and sculpture; the artists have cut a large hole from the centre of a Bechstein Grand Piano and made adjustments to the pedals, to allow the pianist to enter the piano, play it from within and wheel it across the floor as they walk. The piece is then performed hourly with pianists stepping under and into the piano and reaching over the top to play. The performance becomes contorted, unwieldy and tentative as the pianist tries to play the piece, effectively upside-down. This burden is furthered as they manoeuvre the piano through the exhibition space forcing the audience to move either along with it or at least out of its way.
Jillian Grant spoke with the artists in the lead-up to their Australian visit about the work and wrote a feature essay for Artists Profile, which is currently published in Issue 21 (pp. 1108-110). See the work being performed, and hear from the artists, at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
MOMA ‘On Line’ Series: Allora & Calzadilla from Ben Coccio on Vimeo.
Kaldor Public Art Projects #26
Until 6 Dec, 2012
Cowen Gallery, State Library of Victoria
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