REaD is part of a trillogy: Weiss – REaD – Glær. It was born from a RED line that was rEAd and other elements that got ADded to it, creating: REaD. It can be performed solo, in duo, or collectively. It can take the shape of a reading, a performance, an exhibition, an installation. It can exist in bookform, as a drawing, as a score. It takes on an organic form and is prone to changes and open to new influences.
(c) Marc Faes
The red line, has a symbolical and potent signification, traditionally it has been used for all kinds of magical, protective, binding uses. In Chinese art the red strings connects the various parts of armour, and is even used in the jade shroud of King Chu. It has been used for amulets in folk art, it is one of the colours we respond to the most intensely, since it is also the colour of taboo, blood and alarm.
The pictures above show me working on a 10 meters long REaD score for Musica, Dommelhof, Neerpeld, Belgium.
The RED line can take the shape of the binding of a big book – the book is made up out of fragments of 3 large sized (150 cm on 200/300 cm) action paintings, cut to pages. These works were created in the summer of 2000 under guidance and supervision of Hermann Nitsch at the Sommerakademie in Salzburg.
The inspiration for the work came from a desire to give these pieces, these action paintings, that also represent a part of my life that now has passed, a new life – REviving them. Enabling a metamorphosis, generating a new rhythm, interlacing the book with younger work on rice paper, where red lines and hair are delicately superposed to create a poetic score.
The book can be READ interpreting the colour and movement of the paint with voice. Improvising through the pages, creating sound poetry, music, where the voice becomes a journey one can embark upon, through an imaginary landscape, that opens up from ones own imagination. Hence activating the book as object to be touched, read, explored. Sometimes using metal boxes to accompany the voice with their feedback.
REaD amongst it’s many variations took on the form of a collaboration with Vincent Tholomé. Under the title ‘La Conquête du Pays Ugogo’ we fused both the line, the sounds from the metal box, our voices and our texts. The video below, combines the sound from the Paris performance at Festival Général Instin 2014 with a video of sparrow shot in Brighton a few years ago. It’s a rough recording, echoed in the grainy texture of the video.
Flowing the red line 