elizabet van der kooij, diederik klomberg & nico parlevliet | the testimony
trams, cyclists, rain coats, de laan van meerdervoort, dogs and red roses
visual artists nico parlevliet and diederik klomberg & composer elizabet van der kooij present a typographic performance about the fallibility of the human perception (dutch written/spoken)
'each individual has only one attention and shall have to make it do.'
the testimony is a typografic performance performed in a multi-media installation. _starting point for the testimony is a set of two statements of an incident, made simultaneously by two witnesses. _the statements are being typed -live- on paper, filmed and projected on a transparent screen. _the stories differ, but significant similarities suggest that they refer to the same incident. _coincidence? _is the first statement the immediate account of an actual experience and the second the shifted reproduction of the recollection of that same event?
during the performance the focus is subject to continuous distraction, shifting from the left to the right hand projection, to the view of the typing artists behind that, listening to- and looking at nico's remote controlled sound installation adding a hitchcock-like suspense, to the digitally manipulated touches of the remington and continental vintage typewriters
the testimony is a play with the sensory unrest of the audience and its subsequent growing awareness of discomfort. _the performance deals with selective perception, showing the impossiblity of objective truth. _not that anything was hidden: everything was simultaneously visible all the time. _but it's that evident transparancy that annoyed us. _all we had to do was to make a choice, apply some kind of hierarchy. _what whas actually shown to us? _and, even more important, what did we perceive of all that and what do we remember of what we have perceived?
elizabet and diederik met in circles of bass guitar players. _nico and diederik met in visual art circles. _elizabet considered to start a collaborative project for some time. _diederik drew elizabet's attention to nico's sound sculptures. _the actual creation of the testimony was sparked in march 2010 by the invitation to contribute to proeflokaal, a monthly experimental music lab in theater kikker, utrecht
the used statements are inspired by the first chapter of graz, a novel by bart moeyart, in which the accident with a cyclist at the front door of the protagonist boosts the story
f.l.t.r.: elizabet van der kooij, nico parlevliet and diederik klomberg
one of the two remote controlled string instruments by nico parlevliet