published on
PORTA CHIUSA
Hans Koch, clarinet / Michael Thieke, clarinet / Paed Conca, clarinet
DESCRIPTION
PORTA CHIUSA
Created by composer and musician Paed Conca (http://www.paed.ch), PORTA CHIUSA is an interdisciplinary performance that combines two film projections, a spoken-word text, and a live musical performance. It is based on the conflict that we are experiencing at the beginning of the 21st century, namely that of a world built upon national states, in which people are still not treated equally; in which we still speak about color and race; in which nutrition, health and access to education are still greatly conditioned by hierarchal classification.
The main theme underlining the performance is the conflict between the “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,” (Declaration of Human Rights from December 10th, 1948) and the fact that this dignity is increasingly violated.
CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS
Film (1)
In 2008, filmmaker Giorgio Andreoli shot footage of the deportation of asylum seekers at the Zurich/Kloten Airport, and processed them into a movie collage. Their faces are not shown intentionally.
Film (2)
Wearing a blindfold, eventuality artist Giovanni Di Stefano (http://web.mac.com/giovannidistefano) is shown painting a glass door with black oil chalk. This procedure was filmed from both sides of the painted surface; and both recordings shown simultaneously on video. The artist attempted to cover the glass within 30 minutes, so that no transparent space was left untouched. A task he was naturally unable to achieve, since he was blindfolded and bound to make mistakes.
Text
Written by author and performer Heike Fiedler, the “Forteressensiemangerneles” text (http://www.realtimepoem.com) is a word creation in various languages, which plays on the themes of marginalization and oppression.
Music
The “Porta Chiusa“ composition will be produced live in concert by Hans Koch, Michael Thieke and Paed Conca, to accompany the text and videos described above.
RATIONALE
The main video shown in PORTA CHIUSA shows a glass-door. By painting it, one tries to make it impermeable; this will not succeed, however, as spots are bound to remain transparent. PORTA CHIUSA employs this symbol to say that total (totalitarian) security is impossible; it is only used as pretense, to refuse admittance. A fallacious security, blind towards the reality of worldwide migration, and unaware that this kind of walling-off nourishes danger from within. This walling-off also means that human dignity is disregarded.
Heike Fiedler’s texts and Giorgio Andreoli’s film shed a light on the fact that the current criminalization of pan-European migration is legally anchored, and a fact to be reckoned with. As far as the would-be migrants are concerned, their lack of status entails that they are classified as sub-standard, dangerous, criminal and un-social. This “non-status” furthermore implies the inability to be a human being, and the deprivation of any right to freedom of action.
PORTA CHIUSA intends to make a statement against this recent development in world policy, and transmit a strong and definitive signal against it.