Il Treno
Experiment Geschwindigkeit, Lokhalle Göttingen, 2004
Performed on 12 September 2004, this Il Treno was the first German installment of John Cage’s railway performance “Il Treno. Alla ricerca del silenzio perduto (The Train. In Search of the Lost Silence)”. Cage’s Il treno premiered 1978 in Bologna, Italy. 26 years later, directed by Daniel Ott, art students of Berlin University of Art and the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler recreated the event on the old railway tracks between Göttingen und Kassel as part of the festival Experiment Geschwindigkeit.
Following the american composer’s plans and adding new ideas and current technology, a complete train was turned inside out: sounds from the locomotive and the tracks are transmitted into the trains compartments. Using a giant, walk-in Camera Obscura as well as modern day video technology, moving images are captured inside the train. Musicians accompany the sound environment and performers play out chance encounters in the aisle. The trains is tranformed into a musical instrument, the time table into a score and passengers as well as local residents beceom part of the performance. As it did in Cage’s version 1978, the train stops a small stations where it is greated by local music and folk groups.
Project management und performance by Josa
Video installationen und performance by Sebastian
