Christian Marclay, the Swiss-American collagist and composer, is in Amsterdam to perform his latest work, Everyday. With Marclay utilising the turntables and electronics with which he made his name – Marclay has a claim to being the first musician to improvise with records and turntables – Everyday features him performing alongside his jazz ensemble, comprising Steve Beresford on piano, John Butcher on saxophone, Alan Tomlinson on trombone, and Mark Sanders on percussion. With a montage of hundreds of found film clips projected, conjoined, and narrowed onto a big screen, these images serve as a score for the musicians, who read and interpret them for their performance through a series of movements and audio-visual sequences. Everyday will be performed tomorrow evening at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, as part of the Holland Festival.
Marclay’s previous work, The Clock, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale 2011. Tonight, as a sort of preface to Everyday, EYE (the Dutch Film Institute) and the Holland Festival show three of Marclay’s earlier projects, all of which also draw upon found footage, film and improvised music.
The Bell and the Glass (2003) brings together the Liberty Bell, the symbol of American independence located in Philadelphia, and Marcel Duchamp’s The Large Glass (also called The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even), the artwork which he completed in 1923, and which is in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. With video relating to these two pieces projected onto two screens, musicians improvise regarding the videos as a score. In Screen Play (2005), black-and-white footage provides the background for coloured, musically-inspired computer-animation. Shuffle (2007) is a sort of musical card game which suggests the musicality of everyday life, using photographs which imply the elements of musical notation to spur improvisation. For the performance at EYE, the MAZE ensemble will play to Marclay’s visuals.
Everyday will feature at the Muziekgebouw tomorrow at 8.30 pm. The three works by Marclay at EYE will be shown and performed from 8.30 pm this evening; with Marclay being interviewed in the foyer from 7.30 pm. More information is here and here.
amsterdamarm 