Fümms bö wö – re: dada sound. a soundpoetic hommage
from Hugo Ball to Kurt Schwitters
Remixing, deconstructing, looping, improvising with & reciting classical DADA sound poetry from the early 20th Century, paying homage to the sound poetry pioneers Hugo Ball, Raoul Hausmann and Kurt Schwitters. Playing around with DADA but also taking it serious as a source of inspiration to create a modern 21. century sound poetry, using experiences and technologies available today.
The core of his set is an intense and rhythmic 30 min. „tour de force“ performance of the „Ursonate“ (Kurt Schwitters), the masterpiece of European sound poetry.
Live in Helsinki
DADA symbolizes the most extreme break with traditions and conventions. DADA was an aesthetic and political revolt. DADA paved the way for most developments in modern art. Even today DADA provokes us. If you only understand DADA as „nonsense“ you miss something. DADA aims at the core of human condition – our strange ability to create meaning out of NOTHING. Today DADA is mostly noted for it´s influence on visual art: collage, montage, assemblage, film, performance, multimedia, concept art.
Sound poetry has been one of the most important and unique but also most forgotten DADA innovations.
When I was a teenager, the discovery of DADA opened my eyes and ears. DADA became the starting point of my own artistic journey. From there on I slowly developed my own approach to language and sound, integrating many other influences from spoken word to minimal art. But now it´s time for a homage to the heroes of my youth.
I still love the profound silliness and the serious playfulness of DADA. Therefore, I take liberties when I work with the historical material. I will improvise, distort, deconstruct, remix, loop and use electronic effects. Works of precursors and successors and works of my own can be added to link DADA with the present and future.
-Set length: 60-90 minutes. Full evening program, but can also be shortened for festivals or other situations.
-Including the complete „Ursonate“ by Kurt Schwitters takes 30min. Ursonate can also be booked as a solo piece.
-Sound Poetry is a universal language. It can be performaned without translation in every country. Introduction & talk can be English or German.
supplementary:
Introduction to DADA & DADA Sound Poetry (Lecture)
Sound Poetry Workshop „Fümms bö wö“
Parts of the program have been performed in Germany, Austria, Finland, Spain, USA, Mexico, India.
Performance/discussion at “Language Eating” Festival, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Turku, Finland, 2015
The „Ursonate/Sonata in primeval sounds“ was composed by multimedia artist Kurt Schwitters from Hannover, Germany 1922 – 32. Today it is considered as a masterpiece of classical Sound Poetry. The 30 minute poem is completely abstract and constructed of letters and lettergroups with no meaning. The piece is not a nonsensical sound cacophony but a carefully composed and meticulously structured vocal tour de force in the form of a sonata.