Three performance nights about the spoken word in different art disciplines, composed by Toine Horvers, Samuel Vriezen and Dante Boon and Cora Schmeiser.
A celebration of the oral tradition in the arts, in which the voices of poets, visual artists, musicians, choreographers, actors and storytellers meet.

The plan for WORDS LIVE came from the observation that in Poetry International Festival Rotterdam poetry performances and visual arts are kept strictly apart, and that especially language performances from other art disciplines are absent. In the visual arts, theatre, music as well as dance examples of the use of oral/vocal language abound. Language in a more or less composed form: sound, rythm and composition of words and sentences used in an imaginative way. Here, besides conveying information, language refers to itself, particularly, as a spatial and temporal process, thus referring very strongly to oral poetry.

Words Live is a follow-up of Words 2, a video compilation of performances by artists from various disciplines in Sub Urban Video Lounge, curated by Toine Horvers and screened during Poetry International Festival Rotterdam 2008. (www.sub.urbanespressobar.nl)


29.11.2008 Words Live 1 Performance. Beth Anderson, Cora Schmeiser, Samuel Vriezen, Gabriëlle Barros Martins, Antoine Beuger, Els van Riel, Taylan Susam, Dante Boon, Joost Baars, Martijn Voorvelt, Toine horvers, Dylan Newcomb, Georges Aperghis, John Cage, Samuel Beckett, Sandra Johnston, Ton Pompert, Jonathan Burrows/Matteo Fargeon, Mariëlle Verdijk.

Words Live is financially supported by Municipal Services for Arts and Culture, City of Rotterdam and Fund BKVB Amsterdam and St. Bevordering Volkskracht.

Program Words Live 1

Beth Anderson: If I were a poet 1975 Cora Schmeiser.
The early text works of NY composer Beth Anderson relate to both minimal music and poetry, in her own words: a kind of vocal-percussive music.
Samuel vriezen: 10 lezers 2008 Jackson Mac Low Band, Cora Schmeiser, Antoine Beuger, Toine Horvers, Ton Pompert, Gabriëlle Barros Martins, Taylan Susam.
The readers sit amongst the audience reading a book, and occasionally speaking words from it: composer and poet Samuel Vriezen is in the first place a conceptual artist.
Gabriëlle Barros Martins: Woorden als woorden in de loop van de tijd 2007 The audience.
Her performance is a strict registration of spoken words sounding in space by the voices of people from the audience.
Antoine Beuger: Landscapes of absence 2001 Cora Schmeiser, Antoine Beuger, Taylan Susam, Koen Nutters, Nina Hitz
Antoine, co-initiator and central figure of the composers-group Wandelweiser, works around the concept of music as a process of sound in time and space. 'Landscapes' is based on a Emily Dickinson poem and accompanied by a video work of Els van Riel.

Toine Horvers: Scheepshoorn 2004 Jackson Mac Low Band, Toine Horvers and Cora Schmeiser.
A ship's horn in the form of a choral piece, originally written for the 'MS. Noordereiland Scheepshoornkoor'.
Georges Aperghis: Récitations pour voix seule 1977 - 1978 Cora Schmeiser
Aperghis is a Greek composer exploring extreme dynamics in the sound of words. A breathtaking virtuoso performance by soprano Cora Schmeiser.
Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion: Speaking dance 2004 fragment video registration by Hugo Gelendinning 2008
Two male dancers play a light-footed game with the sound of words in the space.
John Cage: parts from Songbooks 1970 Cora Schmeiser
A 90-parts music-theatre piece for voices, dependent on the choices of the performer.
Samuel Beckett: last pages of Unnamebles 1953 Ton Pompert
These pages, full of words and sentences, are as dense as the thoughts in someone's mind. Often without interpunction, they are not written for reading aloud, but it might be interesting to do anyway.
Sandra Johnston: performance 2008 Sandra Johnston
Her performances are centred around the notion of territory. Each work is site specific. Recently Sandra has been using speech in order to connect locations, memories and recent experiences.
Dylan Newcomb: Talking about dancing as a language without words
Dylans choreographies often show a kind of ritualistic character. In a lecture/dance performance he will show the relation between his movements and speech.
Toine Horvers: Inis Oírr panorama in four directions 2003 Toine Horvers
A description of a vertical panorama in four directions of the compass. Its reading has a certain rhythm because of the repetitions, thus becoming as it were a poem with four verses

year	2008
date	29.11
location	De Player Rotterdam
brief description	Three performance evenings about the spoken word in different art disciplines.
curator	Toine Horvers i.c.w. Samuel Vriezen, Dante Boon and Cora Schmeiser
photography	Koos Siep
project or event	Words Live

text:
Meetings, on the choice for artists and works for Words Live 1