Here Comes The Mammoth
Up to
their latest show entitled Here Comes the Mammoth, many female artists
have already taken the position as 'future queens', including Pippilotti Rist,
Regina Floria Schmid and Theresa Alonso. Les Reines Prochaines currently
consists of original members Muda Mathis and Fränzi Madörin, and of Gaby
Streiff, Sus Zwick and Sibylle Hauert, who joined the group later. Apart from
participating in the group, each female artist has her own independent career.
"Our
procedure is progressive, conceptual and associational. Individual and group
artistic work intertwine and complement each other to form an artistic whole.
Music and performances are marked by our inner images, presentiments, memories,
experiences and phantasies, which all spring up from our individual, political
and cultural realities. Trivialities, myths, pop culture, folklore, childhood
and the physical all serve as sparks of inspiration for the form and the
content of our work. Our compositions are minimalistic, radically thrifty and
luxuriously simple. Apart from the discipline of perception we also use the
arbitrariness of chance. Music is the most important element, while the lyrics
are in different languages. We play synthesizer, bass guitar, percussion,
accordion, guitar, clarinet, trumpet, flute and traditional horn.
Toy-instruments and small hammers, with their unusual uses, also play a major
role in this. We can all play all of the above instruments, although some of us
do not actually use every single one."
The
magnificent 'sovereigns' stemming from below the Alps claim that the music in Here
Comes the Mammoth is "good and pleasing to the ear of an endurable
audience." The lyrics sung in English, French, German or Spanish are a
somewhat different matter. At first sight they might appear as if coming from a
naive child, but only at first sight. "I had a dream I was King Kong/I
was an ape and very strong/and in my hand I held a maid/ I looked down and I
was afraid! The maid I held in my hand it was me too and I can't believe it
believe it believe it believe it ... the maid I held in my fist it was me too
and I kissed my own face my own face my own face ..." (Alberta 1999)
The music
is the centre; and this centre determines all the other elements which follow
the music. This principle applies to video too. Although it might seem that the
camera should function as an extension of the artist's eye, Muda Mathis
frequently ignores looking through the lens, and, instead, moves around, thus
causing the camera to film the images produced by her movement. "I
don't trust my watchful, selective eye; it sees things too academicaly. The
point is to find new images." The images found in the aesthetics of Les
Reines Prochaines are everyday actualities, fantastic scenes,
conversations, dancing; all of which is enriched with colourfulness and energy.
Here
Comes the Mammoth is
a "big, thick cake of bodypoems, scientific lectures, tricks, sounds,
lightgames and songs. It's a performance about dangers, miracles and early
history." The show premiered on September 1st in Switzerland.
The guest performance is organised by City of Women
In cooperation with KUD
France Prešeren
With the support of Pro Helvetia
