ōverscore

‘overscore‘ (duet for voice, contrabass, and electric clippers. Performance for photo, 2010.) A man of transsexual history enters the space. The room is filled with German intellectuals. He explains, “I have entered the room an ambiguously raced Semite, I will leave the room a White Man.” He chants the VeAhavta, and then with a contrabassist improvises on the chant, tuned to the tone emitted by electric clippers buzzing on the floor. They play the contrabass together, with bow, slapping, and clippers. He then approaches each of the academics wordlessly, offering the clippers, and his head. His shorn hairs and beard replaces their books on the table. Now bald, he collects all the hair, and invites the Director of the Institute to follow him to the roof, where a photographer has been positioned. He throws his hair and beard off the roof, to mingle with the dust floating over Berlin.

Michael Tuttle – contrabass. Maxime Ballestros – photographer.

overscore was presented as part of a colloquium group “Loss/Borders/Politics”, organized under the “Tension/Stammerung” project at Kulturlabor ICI Berlin.