stadtfischfilm - "head over heels to China"

stadtfischfilm - le piano fatigué

Chairs being thrown through the crowd,
Plaster cast heads being worked on and destroyed live, shaving foam and other sprays being used for the mobilization of the masses. Banners, shopping bags, feather pillows and various devices otherwise rather to be encountered in the scrap yard were used to provoke reactions in the audience that gave the artist the equally surprising opportunity to improvise. more highlights were spontaneous concerts - at places like Shanghai, Macau, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Shenszen - with local "noise" artists, freejazz musicians as well as classically trained traditional musicians and smashed guitars. there were overnight stays at 5-star hotels, in artist villages and brothels, 10 Watt- sound systems without wiring etc.

A step across the border for both cultures
with an accent on spontaneity. the movie tells of bilateral inspiration and the experience of what "open eyes" truly achieve: understanding. It is not about when and which cultural change took place and how politics related to it but about everyday life. And with each more day of the journey bit by bit the own personal view changes. the trailer to the movie "le piano fatigué", in the meantime translated into Chinese, was also shown. Lectures were held about "modern art and music" at universities and galleries were engaged for restoration works (afterwards). The trailer (composed in quite a hurry) gives a first impression.

the home country is being appraised again.
this movie shall be filmed during a new tour through China and finished in Hamburg. Already finished recordings will be added. The clip/trailer produced with those already edited recordings serves as an example. The documentary shall make it possible for both cultures to participate in these adventures as viewers in the European as well as in the Chinese cinema/television.

NEW!

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When in spring 2009 Uwe Bastiansen wanted to give several interviews for his movie "le piano fatigué" he was quite surprised that the management of the Point Éphèmére in Paris even one year after that concert still did not want to talk to him. A member of staff described his view on the art-errorist and bagio show with these words: "There are several things you can do in a club in Paris and several things you cannot do – and this was almost everything you cannot do...". on three stages positioned around the audience a spectacular took place with Jean-Hervé Péron, Muck Giovanett and Uwe Bastiansen waywardly presenting an extremely unusual music and show with tools and instruments. With a chainsaw, pillows, rat traps or buckets of sand - the audience was permanently chased through the hall. the title of the movie "le piano fatigué" insinuates further surprises.

That evening in Point Éphèmére in Paris not only the artists Jean-Hervé Péron, Muck Giovanett and Uwe Bastiansen and, as guest, Iojik presented their role play. rather the audience - partly planned, partly not - became actor of this memorable performance. Not only the music but a variety of multivisual and experimental narrative techniques led to the success of this "happening". the three musicians did not share one stage but each one occupied one "island". The audience had to battle for their space in between this three-dimensional sound spectrum but was stirred up again and again. Each musician was filmed separately and projected onto another via beamer or tv. visuals and sounds from 3 different directions led to an experience that surprised the audience and left it utterly confused. On top of that an additional camera being passed through the hands of the audience documented this event from an individual perspective.

the silence induced an almost audible tension.
microphones attached to an old bicycle tyre and a special surround recording technique sum up to the authenticity of this movie. You might believe you were there.


The following objects were used as instrumentarium (listed alphabetically): bass - milk frother - cymbals - cabasa - concert guitar - chainsaw - drums - freezer bags - glass - goat's hooves - guitar - gun - harmonica - hunting horn - light bulbs - megaphone - metal - piano - pillows - rat traps - sand bucket - screams - sledge hammer - sticky tape - sound latch - tambourine - vacuum cleaner - vocals - wood etc.

Reviews of the concert: Jeanne Marie Chemalep, hand camera:
"it was a very polite audience. considering that, when the smoke bomb was triggered, everybody stayed quite cool."
"the communication between the location and the fire brigade seems to have been very good."
"i would have been quite shocked. with hammers and naked people and a drummer looking like an alien UFO just landed on stage and a smashed piano and so much smoke…"
"many were confused. very confused."
"the mood oscillated between "having fear" and "being fascinated", to and fro. between fear and fascination there is confusion."
"the piano player played on and on and suddenly someone came from behind with the hammer and slammed it on the piano and she just continued playing. you could see her eyes expressing "help, help hope this will work out". but her fingers played on and on and on."

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