Hans Richter’s Dreams That Money Can Buy
This weekend 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th (remember it’s a holiday on Monday in the UK) sees a 4 day program of events labelled Futurist Friday, Surrealist Saturday, Abstract Sunday and Minimalist Monday. Lets not worry too much about these titles ;) but check out some the free items on the program.
On Saturday there is a rare performance of Miro’s puppet show Mori el Merma (‘Death to the Bogeyman’). In his paintings Miro invented spectacular worlds full of abstract entities, characters and creatures from zoophmorphic geometries, so I’m curious to see how his visions translate into the world of puppetry. Another good reason; The bogeyman is based on Alfred Jarry’s character Ubu, from his play Ubu Roi. The world has never been more in need of such parody and pataphysics.
Sunday sees an equally rare performance of john cage’s Musicircus. The three-hour performance features cages trademark combination of live and pre-recorded electronics, as well as traditional musical instruments.
“Some years ago … we gave a Musicircus … in a large gymnasium. We simply had as much going on at a single time as we could muster. And we exercised no aesthetic bias. … You should let each thing that happens happen from its own center, whether it is music or dance. Don’t go in the direction of one thing ‘using’ another. Then they will all go together beautifully (as birds, airplanes, trucks, radios, etc. do).” Link via
Other curiosities worth mentioning that are free include Surasi Kusolwons One Pound Turbo Market (you’ll have a good time) (26th), Digital Graffiti Workshops (28th) and talks by Wire writer and sound artist David Toop (28th) and Cultural Havocist Stewart Holme (29th).
If that isn’t enough there are also some pretty compelling ticketed events on too. Saturday sees a screening Dadaist filmmaker Hans Richter’s Dreams That Money Can Buy (1946) about ‘a penniless protagonist who has the ability to create dreams and devises a business selling them to others. Among his customers are some of the greatest names in the Dadaist/Surrealist movements, including Man Ray, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp and Fernand Leger’.
The weekend closes with a concert of minimal music and visuals; Extreme Economy in Electronic Music and Visualisation: Ryoji Ikeda, alva noto (Carsten Nicolai), and Robert Henke aka Monolake. Expect a review of this one, as I will be attending, oh and drop us a line if you are too and say hello!