kagablog

this interview first appeared on kopenhagen.dk

Time has come, the new edition of Netfilmmakers is upon us! On October 18th, South-African artist Aryan Kaganof will unveil the 18th edition, curated by him, aptly named “Noisewomb”, at the new and improved Netfilmmakers’ space, at Brorsonsgade 1, Vesterbro. Contributing artists Kerstin Ergenzinger, Isabelle Schiltz, and Catherine Henegan, will be present and discuss their works.

Curator Kaganof describes his idea of Noisewomb:

Intention of the theme (After Adorno).

If the aesthetic realm originally emerged as an autonomous sphere from the magic taboo, which distinguished the sacred from the everyday, seeking to keep the former pure, the profane now takes its revenge on the descendant of magic, on art. Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane, which finally took over the taboo. Nothing may exist which is not like the world as it is. Noise is the false liquidation of art. Instead of utopia becoming a reality it disappears from the picture. NOISEWOMB is a net-based staging of the reappearance, on the scene of the absent sign, of the previously silent utopia.

I think it is useful to return to Rainer Maria Rilke’s fabulous essay “Primal Sound” from 1919, where he describes the following:

“The coronal suture of the skull a certain similarity to the closely wavy line which the needle of a phonograph engraves on the receiving, rotating cylinder of the apparatus. What if one changed the needle and directed it on its return journey along a tracing which was not derived from the graphic translation of a sound, but existed of itself naturally–well: to put it plainly, along the coronal suture, for example. What would happen?
A sound would necessarily result, a series of sounds, music … Feelings–which? Incredulity, timidity, fear, awe–which of all the feelings here possible prevents me from suggesting a name for the primal sound which would then make its appearance in the world … Leaving that side for the moment: what variety of lines then, occurring anywhere, could one not put under the needle and try out? Is there any contour that one could not, in a sense, complete in this way and then experience it, as it makes itself felt, thus transformed, in another field of sense?”

I am hoping that the three artists involved will work with this idea of a primal noise, an Ur-noise, a noise from the womb. I do not however, want to influence their interpretation of these ideas in any way.

aryan kaganof

In my work, I attempt to develop a dialogue between the human body and the material world, being spaces and their objects.

Since I find the relationship between those two entities very powerful, I would like to define it as a ‘confrontation’. To stage this confrontation I use my own body that I put in a certain setting and then I observe how it reacts to it by means of recording myself on video.

The reaction of the body can be movements or no movement, sounds or no sound. In any case, the making of sounds is intimately related to movements. One cannot go without the other.

I try to use my body as a pure instrument. To do so, I place myself into a certain place, so it means that I have decided on certain rules that will form the frame in which I can then let go of all rational control, escape my own consciousness. Freed from rational control and patterns, i enter into a space which does not follow the societal choreography any longer. The body then goes back to the primitive, to the uncensored, to the real.

‘Being’ fully present in a spacial and time related context demands most of your senses : touching or not, looking, listening, feeling on your body and in your body. I try to translate all these perceptions through the sound performance. Through sounds, I let myself get absorbed in the moment and in the space in which I am.

John Cage already established a link between the making of sounds and the visual. I follow his approach but I attempt to associate it also with the physical experience of the body towards what surrounds it.

Sometimes it seems, it is more confronting to remain silent. There is no such a thing as total silence. If I remain silent in a piece, then the surrounding sounds overwhelm the video and act as animators.

It is fascinating to see the constant dynamic between the living body and its surroundings. The space or objects can have an effect on you but through sounds it seems that you can have an effect on your surroundings, you can almost animate your material environment, like the aboriginals who sing the landscape to keep it alive. Body and space become an indissociable couple in constant dialogue.

I view my recorded performances as sculptures since it is a translation of the experience of space, of the physical world.

Chance is also an important element in my performances. Since I make those performances in a real-life setting, I am subjected to be influenced by unexpected occurrences. So each piece is really unique. It depends on the capacity of perception of the body and of the space itself which has its own life. I believe in the purity of improvisation.

I am influenced by a large range of artists who use their voices or their bodies in their work : Marina Abramovic, Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker, Pina Bausch, Meredith Monk, Maja Ratkje, Mike Patton, Tagaq, Bjork, Guido Van der Werve, John Wood and Paul Harrison, and many more.

how I made “mandelbrut physically assaults isabelle schiltz” : I went to all of isabelle’s (youtube ?) videos, and played them back, one by one, recording all of the audio from them onto a cassette tape. after filling the tape up with all of my “isabelle raw materials”, I proceeded to manipulate those raws with my audio effects (pedals, homemade devices, junk,etc) , and recorded that process onto another cassette tape. then I re-processed that cassette tape with additional effects, manipulations. so its all made 100% out of isabelle’s performances, I didn’t add any additional instruments or materials, only isabelle feeding back on isabelle feeding back on isabelle.