Mattin / Cured Pink / Sick Horse / Justice Yeldham / Regular Line at NK Project Berlin / Sunday, 06.09.2015

The exhibition ‘Portraits of Masters’ is a series of art works / drawings by Slovak visual artist Martin Derner consisting of interventions into existing portraits of the most important composers of contemporary music such as John Cage, Steve Reich, David Tudor, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass and Milan Adamčiak. In these works Derner is using various draftsmanship materials and techniques (pencil, pen, chalk, etc.). By using character based, symbolic and material, author examines the formation of dialogue – a game with rules of re-contextualization, but also deteritorialisation of original. These interventions are kind of a commentary on the original photos while also an unique homage to each composer.

‘Bon Jour Monogramista T.D.’ is a intermedia performance by MONOGRAMISTA T.D. (born as Dezider Tóth in 1947), one of the most important representatives of Slovak art. Considered “father of Slovak conceptual art”, his art work ranges from the performance, installation, bookmaking to painting, object and minimalist intervention.

His work ‘Partituras’ (1976-1978) attracted the interest of Slovak intermedia group CLUSTER ENSEMBLE in early 2014. The work is a series of ink drawings strongly resembling graphical music scores, but have always been consider conceptual visual art and have never been musically reinterpreted.

In performance, the members of Cluster Ensemble reinterpret various parts of ‘Partituras’ through several media like music, dance, sound-art and spoken word. The artists successfully toured Slovakia with the performance in 2014 attracting crowds of audience.

What’s been described as “a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe” is in fact the unique work of JUSTICE YELDHAM, a maverick musician with an unhealthy obsession with sheets of broken glass. In his infamous show that has astonished and bemused countless people in over 45 countries, Yeldham ecstatically purses his lips against sheets of amplified glass whilst deftly employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries, turning discarded shards into crude musical instruments. The results are a wild array of cacophonous noise that is strangely controlled and oddly musical. The instruments simple, original and effective premise is a welcome respite to the over complicated musical performances of modern times. A one of a kind act re-defining the expression ‘don’t try this at home’ this show quite simply needs to be witnessed to be fully appreciated, let alone understood.

vimeo.com/66558895

SICK HORSE “nothing but power drama from Spain, Chile, Israel and Germany. Anti-you, no merch, no excuses. Tough, half-tough, fast, double-time, windy and untamed like a grandpaish newborn hooking you up with the wrong crowd, decorated with medals and music.”

Once the solo exhibitionism of Andrew McLellan (Soft Power, Greg Boring, Enderie Nuatal, one time Kitchen’s Floor) Brisbane, Australia’s CURED PINK has recently changed pipes, recruiting extra limbs to fracture new song-funks. With members Glen Schenau (Per Purpose, Sky Needle), Mitchel Perkins (Per Purpose, Clever), Stuart Busby (the Deadnotes, Threads) there is a 2015 LP ‘As A Four Piece Band’ coming through RIP Society, following a 2014 12” maxi single on Berlin’s Another Dark Age, and a 2013 single ‘Body Body Body’ on Black Petal. This run has followed numerous releases of spasmodic dub, suburban field recordings and the Queensland Police Force on labels such as Vacant Valley, Sabbatical, Redundancy and more.

MATTIN is the elusive intellectual & noise celebrity; member of radical Nigerian band Billy Boa whose albums include »Urban Disease« and »Dialectics of Shit«; editor & contributor to the book »Noise & Capitalism,« and much more.