FOUNTAIN

for 5 + x performers, 10 + y plastic cups and a bottle of water
composition/concept: Steffi Weismann
various versions since 2008, 6 - 12 Minutes

Fountain is a living sound sculpture, a kind of Fluxus event or Readymade music. After water is poured into single plastic cups, various circulation processes begin between five performers, which in more recent versions also extend to the audience.

Fountain (2017) Ballhaus Ost, Berlin

The first Fountain was created in 2008 for a Fluxus concert in Bern with the then 75-year-old artist Alison Knowles and the Maulwerkers. Two years later, composer Dieter Schnebel was given a version of the performance as a present for his 80th birthday. Knowles and Schnebel had the role of pouring the water into the two uppermost cups and thus setting the fountain in motion - an action that thematises the passing on between generations.


Fountain (2008) Bone-Festival, Bern

In the versions of the piece from 2012 onwards, the person starting the cycle became less important. The attention is not on the source but on the whole process of circulation, which develops into a complex situation of giving and taking and also conveys a political statement. The amount of water becomes less and less through drinking, spilling or sabotaging the circulation. But new water can find its way back into the circulation through the audience.

Fountain (2012) with Barbara Loreck, Alessandra Eramo, Wendelin Büchler and Gabriel Dharmoo, Berlin

Around 2015-2016, versions were created that further developed the idea of participation. As a composer/author, Steffi Weismann dealt with the transmission of ideas: How openly or precisely must the score or instructions be formulated so that the players understand the rules of the game and then enter into the creative process themselves? How can a complex and well-sounding overall situation be created with little rehearsal time? How much space is given to coincidences and how does the transition to the participatory part with the audience work best?
These questions were put into practice in workshops at the Goethe Centre in Santa Cruz (Bolivia) and at the Serralves Museum in Porto.


Fountain (2016), Goethe Zentrum Santa Cruz de la Sierra

In 2017, a precisely notated score was created, a 7-minute version for the stage as the essence of the preceding studies and performances.

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