Üben Üben Üben - the second lesson

Pauli tries to record real quick before the thunderstorm hits, what happened last night at ÜbenÜbenÜben.

So, today was actually pretty nice weather, but now, the moment I decided to go on today’s walk, Day 2, the thunder is rumbling properly over Basel. Now I just hope I’ll stay dry while I’m speaking, otherwise this text might just end up a bit shorter. I always stick the headphones into the recorder. Even though I can’t really speak into them… I still have to talk into the device itself, but somehow I feel better doing it this way. I probably just look like I’m on the phone or something.

So, what happened last night? The vibe was completely different than on Monday, the first evening. I mean, I… well, I think everyone had a bit of a low, to be honest. But somehow it also, oopsie, influenced the mood, but that’s also, that’s kind of the great thing when you do something every evening for a whole week. You can’t have the same hype-vibe every single day, I’d say. Yesterday it was mostly video works that we watched, three of them, each with some kind of performance element woven in, more or less. And I think with video watching, you can also be a bit more inward, you know, just take it in. Someone described it yesterday as an “Italian Sandwich.” That was funny, a little nod to the artists’ origins. Because there were three guys showing their videos. And the ones at the front and at the back were the Italians. And in the middle, a guy from the Dominican Republic.

That piece was definitely a highlight. Maybe even of the whole week, though we’ll see. Somehow just really wonderful. He’s here the whole week, joins the evening school, and is having fun. The video was colorful and warm, and it was kind of a portrait of the carnival there in Santo Domingo. And the people were just so excited, and he was dressed up as a devil, asking people these really simple questions. But the people, they carried the whole video with their vibe. It was honestly kind of magical to watch. And also, as a premiere. Like, hard to top that kind of heart-warmth. Plus, it was a perfect video experience. Amazing projector, everything so well set up. Sitting on this soft tartan floor. And the length was spot on. You actually wanted it to go on longer. That’s always a good sign, I think. But also the pieces before and after, they were so different again, because the presence of the artists gave them such a different weight. Also strong, yeah.

The first video was literally carried by the performer, as if he were Atlas. Never watched a video like that before. My neck was a bit stiff afterwards, but honestly worth it. The setup was pretty elaborate, not in the big hall but in some kind of back room or storage space. I was a little scared he might fall down any moment. He was standing really wobbly on a pile of wood and cardboard. The video was like a video-assemblage of found material from… Fischli, I recognized that, and a few others. Kind of starting with this historical, contextualizing voice-over about different art movements. Dada. And the performance itself maybe a bit Dada too. But yeah, great look, for sure. Wobbly and absurd up there.

Okay, now the first drops are coming down. Maybe I can find some shelter. I somehow ended up by the Rhine again. Must be the magnetism of a river when there’s one in a city. But here it’s only trees. Well, maybe the trees will hold it, and me under them.

The last of the three performances was very personal. A tribute to the grandmother who had just recently passed away. It kind of shaped the mood of the evening again… That was the ending, and I think it also hit the hangover-ish mood I was in. This slightly sacred, reverent vibe. As a spectator you were much more… regulated. It had more of that feeling I also sometimes get in church, actually. There are all these rules and behavior patterns, not patterns, but behavioral instructions. And sometimes you don’t really know if you… I usually don’t know them exactly. And then I’m scared I’ll do something wrong. And that kind of overshadows the way I can perceive what’s happening.

And then there was a text read out in Italian. Sadly, I don’t speak Italian. But I think it was about South and North and the differences between South and North. And evolution and representation. Maybe you could say that all three works had a lot to do with representation, in some way. In the carnival piece with the carnival figures, dressing up, where traditional costumes meet these very trashy, modern characters. And also the questioning of representation of gallery and artist and art forms through the found-footage moments in the first performance… The one where the artist projected his video against the ceiling. And finally, thematically but also biographically, the last performance, which ended with a video in the Amazon. And you kind of ask yourself: what is this representing now? The land itself? Or the journey there? Stayed a bit open, I’d say.

But yeah, I think we all carried the evening well. Pina, Jakob and Johannes had really awesome costumes on, that sort of represented swissness in a different way, or negotiated it somehow. They were great, they looked amazing. Today I even put on my ‘circus jacket’, maybe to match that energy.

Damn, now it’s really splashing down into the river. Strange too, because I usually know Art Basel – oh, there we go. I know Basel through Art Basel.That full-on summer paradise by the Rhine. Which is also nice, but today’s vibe, or the current atmosphere, feels more like my North German drizzle-rain heart, which can definitely open up to that.

I think that’s it for today. I’ll duck under somewhere now and convert the audio into text. I think the words I strike out most often, when I edit these, are all the “one’s.” Like, “one does this, one does that.” Awful way to speak. I really need to break that habit. Oh, and “so.” Like, so, so, so all the time. I mean, I’ll leave some of it in, that’s also the joke of it. But sometimes it just has to… out it goes.