Louisa Lee reviews the fascinating, baffling world of five pianos that continue to play without their pianists.
A four hour-long performance of spectral pianos without players and shadows created by willowy trees sits in the basement of Ambika P3. Accompanied by narratives from diverse theorists and a bubbling swamp, the result is pretty impressive.
Last shown in 2008, Stifter’s Dinge by Heiner Goebbels will be open to the public for two weeks only. This is the first time Artangel have introduced its ‘Unguided Tour’ version as it was previously displayed only as a performance. In four hour loops, we are invited to roam around this giant installation consisting of four upright pianos, one stripped-down grand piano on its side, three pools of water, various light installations and several projector screens which are lowered from the ceiling at intermittent periods.
Despite the machinery’s seemingly autonomous actions, this is actually a labour-intensive piece of equipment. Technicians sit on the far side of the room, directing lights, smoke machines, each movement and every action. Further assistants stand around waiting to let go of swinging light bulbs and ready to tell roaming visitors off for walking too far outside of the designated space.
I caught the performance one hour before the end. After being directed down to the industrial space below Westminster University, I was initially confused about how to negotiate this huge installation in an equally huge gallery room. Other viewers seemed equally confused about how to interact with the work – some sit on benches by the side and others walk up to the balcony to see it from different angles. Constructed in a process of thoughts and snippets, memories and process, the machinery works like a Fischli and Weiss piece of kinetic art overlaid with text, music and image. However, it is more controlled than a piece of kinetic art as each section seems tightly choreographed and it demands that you take it seriously to the point where it’s almost comical. Watching a piano play itself and then motor towards you, followed by smoke bellowing out from beneath it is pretty funny.
Narrative voices from William S. Burroughs, Claude Levi-Strauss, Malcom X and recordings from Heiner Goebbel’s archive of Columbian Indians are played. Translated words are projected onto the back wall, steam shoots from the pianos, the water gurgles, spurts, and turns into a lagoon-like swamp. This is almost a fully sensory work, lacking only in a smell element. It’s a performance without actually performing to anyone and it makes you feel like you’ve walked in on a ghostly film-set which carries on without actors and never really ends or concludes.
There are tense movements when the music changes and the pianos move across the water towards you in a slightly menacing way before the prophetic, slightly apocalyptic Levi-Strauss interview ends with: ‘No, I’m solitary by nature’. This work too is solitary, and as such, leaves the viewer not really knowing where to stand or how to act. It is post-structural, anthropological, apocalyptic, spectacular, cinematic and theatrical… phew! And despite this it still feels like everyone is waiting for something to happen. It still feels a bit slow.
The condensed performances starting next week might make the work more dynamic than the unguided version. In this version, the audience pays to see directed slots which might give more structure to this sprawling work. I left wondering if I’d been to an art installation or a theatrical experience - the work carries the gravity of going to the theatre with the lingering thoughts inspired by objects that you might see in an installation. I felt slightly displaced but I guess that’s the intention.
Stifter’s Dinge by Heiner Goebbels runs at Ambika P3 until 18th November
More on Spoonfed
Argo by Ben Affleck
Red Velvet at Tricycle Theatre
The River at Royal Court Theatre
Add an event
Bigger, better, tons more music: East End Film Festival Q&A
The East End Film Festival has established itself as one of the biggest and brightest film festivals...