Fragments from Bartok's "Gate", 2010 +
Bartok:Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs Op.20 (i-III, Viii), 1920

I. Molto moderato
II. Molto capriccioso
III. Lento, rubato
VIII. Allegro

I was always intrigued by those fragmented and nostalgia sparkles inside Bartok's improvisations on peasant songs.  One day by coincidence, i found that Bartok's apt during his suffering last days in new york is actually merely several buildings next to mine near Columbus circle where I passed by every day. That incidental discovery inspired me to improvise on my video camera in front of Bartok's apt gate, recording those fragmented daily scenes that Maestro used to walk through every day some decades ago. During the performance, these hundreds of video footages, while playing backwards, are triggered, reassembled and re-texturized by the live sound and a 2nd person holding a wirelesss controller. Thus it trys to evoke a scenario that all the daily scenes shot 40 years after Bartok's life seem to be an forward/future consciousness in dialogue with Bartok's fragmented memory of his home land where he wrote those improvisations. An hyper interaction across time and space.

credit:
piano, Sichen Ma
reactive media, Yan Da
venue: Shanghai Grand Theatre, Shanghai, China
date: 2010-08- 24