Ondertussen: Keir Neuringer 'One is One (Preludes & Fugues)'
September 14 thru October 26, 2008
Location: Hogewal 1-9
The former reception area of Stroom has been converted into a small
exhibition space. On a regular basis there are presentations of artists
who have received a subsidy in the categories Stroom PRO- and
SPOT-grants. The informal exhibitions and presentations are intended to
illustrate the diversity of the Stroom grant system. The program in the
space is called Ondertussen (Meanwhile).
One is One (Preludes & Fugues)
Begun in 2004, One is One (Preludes & Fugues) is a collection of 48
performance texts, divided evenly into four books with the following
titles:
Book I: Dodging Bullets
Book II: One is One
Book III: You Decide
Book IV: is Against
On a structural level the collection deals with the musicality of
language and the language of music. Its arrangement is both linear and
modular, and references numerous other works, thinkers, and ideas,
sometimes more subtly, sometimes outright. It exists among and between
the disciplines of music, literature, performance, theatre, and perhaps
philosophy. (As the collection developed the visual aesthetic of pages
filled with text was also an important component; after the first 24
texts were complete it was presented as part of an installation.) In
its wide-ranging content One is One addresses the violence and
untenability of civilization, social and personal confusion, ambiguity,
morality, cynicism, and the will to do good, among many other issues.
This is the note that precedes the collection in its manuscript form:
These are Acknowledgements & Dedications
Preludes & Fugues, Composed & Notated between December 2004
& September 2008 in accordance with certain structural principles
(of JS Bach, of Evan Parker, & of Rosa Parks, for example), by one
among the teeming privileged, the wretched reluctant, the well-fed
starving, the colonizing colonized, one nonetheless mean & meek,
born in New York & residing during the time of these works in The
Netherlands, & offered humbly & solely by the author to no one
in particular & anyone in general--including the reader, the
performer, the listener & the arranger--with an interest in music;
literature; the overlap of tradition & experimentation; form,
content & aesthetics; codes, lists, love letters & talking
aloud to oneself in public (while walking, for example, or standing,
perhaps, on a stage); self defence & addressing adversity; creative
discipline; intellectual rigor; style; the birth pangs of a
post-civilized world & the quiet & constant threat of
self-immolation.
Archive Ondertussen presentations
- 14 Sep '08 - 26 Oct '08
- Hogewal 1-9, The Hague
- Entrance: free