Performance Day
What is an echo?
An echo is the reflection of sound waves that reach a listener again after a delay.
I must admit that at first it wasn’t entirely clear to me what Maricruz Peñaloza and Chris
Regn had in mind when they suggested that Anna, Yara, and I should act as the echo of
the Performance Day Ticino. Echo? As a musician, I naturally thought of sound, tone, and
reverberation. Something ethereal, flowing — a pastel-colored soundscape from which I
would take my position…
But that’s not what they meant.
“Yes, you can perform as well. But we actually want you for documentation.”
“So something intellectual?”
“You can do whatever you want.”
“But should I bring writing materials? Or better a lipstick?”
“Doesn’t matter, both are fine.”
“…Okay…” An invitation to resonate… interesting.
“So we come as we are, and see how best to resonate?”
“Exactly.”
Yara, Anna, and I briefly sat down together to figure out what we could do best… Singing,
dancing, drawing, installing, writing, and dreaming with open eyes. That would have to be
enough. We also got some reinforcement: Caroline Cecilia Tallone, who by a happy
coincidence was in Ticino at that very moment and with whom I collaborate in various
contexts, joined us with her electroacoustic hurdy-gurdy and a dazzling spectrum of sound
colors — and the group was complete.
During the site visit to Villa Saroli, where everything was to take place, and the first
meeting with the artists, it was immediately clear to us that this task would be interesting
and inspiring. The working approaches were so diverse, the play spaces in the villa and
park so unusual… and the curators’ idea of connecting the Ticino scene more closely with
the German-speaking Swiss scene was so warm and open that an energetic, easy working
atmosphere immediately developed. I was sure it was going to be exciting.
And then — faster than expected, as always — Performance Day was upon us.
I had paper and pen with me. Anna and Yara had materials for drawing.
Six performances were on the program, and after every three we were to perform as
resonances. I was in the audience, trying simply to resonate with what the artists were
doing. Not to judge, but merely to notice what I perceived. What was happening inside me
during the performances, and how I could connect with the artists’ actions. It was a special
experience that opened a completely new understanding for me. I wasn’t asked for
knowledge or judgment, but for participation, sensitivity, and an echo of my experience.
I would say that this echo assignment really opened up a world of art experience for me
that I had never consciously experienced before.
It is such a common attitude that one should have an opinion about art and express one’s
understanding. But what about our ability to experience? Do we have to understand
something in order to be affected by it? Doesn’t a form of art like performance precisely
address the inexplicable? Do we still dare to openly encounter an artistic action? Is it
possible to enter a shared space of experience and share a completely different level for a
moment — one that can reconnect us anew with ourselves, with the world, and with the
meaning of art and human connection?
Our resonances arose completely naturally and reflected in various ways what each echo
experienced. From all four directions, from four artists, with four different nervous systems,
without a deliberate plan, but attuned with empathy and charged with creative energy. Not
difficult, with such intense performances.
The performance artists were:
Ntando Cele
Chris Hunter
Pascal Lampert
Gabriel Magos
Yara Li Mennel
Natalie Peters
Anna Rigamonti
Antonia Röllin
Sara Ofelia Sonderegger
Renato Tagli / Sabina Oberholzer / Alain Poroli
Caroline Cecilia Tallone
Birgit Widmer
It was a pleasure! A big thank you to Maricruz Penaloza and Chris Regn as well as to
VISARTE TICINO!
