Alice Rekab
“Song for Europe” : Conversation & Experimental Workshop/Listening session
Kom.post Festival Berlin 2010 : http://kompost.easy-hebergement.info/drupal/
Date,Time & Location:
- 9th June @ 18h : Chez Alice: Seitenflugel 2.0G rechts, Kottbusser Damm 70, 10967 Berlin
- 10th June @ 12h-13h: Chez Alice: Seitenflugel 2.0G rechts, Kottbusser Damm 70, 10967 Berlin
- 11th June@ 14h-17h: Kom.post Our Shared Factory : Uferhallen Uferstraße 8-11 13357 Berlin : http://www.uferhallen.de
Content of the Project:
I propose a conversation/lead discussion and an experimental workshop and Listening Session depending on voluntary participation.
This project asks for participation in the form of contributed music videos or mp3 files, anything from YouTube links to personal recordings or favorite music tracks that either connect to your own personal sense of identity, your idea of contemporary European Identity, or a particular musical sub-culture you feel connected to. The Project aims to develop conversations and sonic explorations around the possibility of making audible and visible those elements that are not counted in the media or politically in Europe but who still have an effect and are effected by it . The project hopes to form a new synthetic anthem or sound as the product of our shared communality in this small space.
The workshop will consist of each individual conducting a YouTube search, bringing their own recording or using something from the collection of contributions, the video and sound will be displayed by a projector for all to see as each visitor takes his/her turn to share.
The Location will be domestic: the back room of a house in NeuKoln. The atmosphere relaxed, informal enjoyable and interesting as we will all be sharing ideas and sounds together as group. The results of our experiment will be edited by me the Artist and put together in a kind of sound and video collage that will be screened on the afternoon of the 11th of June in The Uferhallen Gallery.
Concept of the project:
I wish to look at Music and the concept of a sonic space of national representation. Taking the Eurovision song contest: a 54 year old internationally televised song competition founded by the European Broadcasting Union where European nations elect previously unknown performers to represent their nation with a song, the winner is elected democratically with each nation awarding points to each entry based on a telephone voting system. The competition has since expanded beyond traditional European boundaries to include Turkish and Israeli entries among others, creating representation on an alternative cultural and political playing field. Using the case of the proposed Palestinian entry in 2010 as an example of the potentially radical symbolic value such a whimsical platform can offer.
In contrast to this, I would also like to develop the notion of a vibrational or rhythmical commonality, and the potential of music to draw people together based on affective identification rather than ethnic or national bonds.
Within the workshop I would like to test the idea of a “Euro-mash-up” as an expression of autonomous singularities in communication with each other and their shared situation (contemporary Europe).
