59th October Salon – Belgrade Biennale 2022: PERFORMANCE Look up! I am no canopy – I’m a Herald!
This is a work by Sanja Andjelković in cooperation with Lav Kovač. It takes particles of different eras, but also different disciplines. It looks into speculative zoology/ Entomology, but predominantly the historical/biological attributes of Magicicada septendecim while in a parallel manner analyzing an Orthodox chant. Music and text for this experimental prophecy were written using references from the Orthodox chants, but deconstructed towards a different context, riddle- like, abstract thoughts about climate change, famine, anxieties, etc.
Thursday, 20th October at 20:00
University Library “Svetozar Marković”
SANJA ANĐELKOVIĆ in cooperation with LAV KOVAČ
Look up! I am no canopy – I’m a Herald! 2022
speculative choir score, performance, audio, 20‘
Written/Composed/Created by Sanja Anđelković
Co-composed/ sensory percussion: Lav Kovač
Cicadas: Živan Popović, Ivana Nožica, Branislava Zagorac, Vuk Popović, Vlado Ilić, Nataša Berić, Eleonora Vojnović
Conductor: Živan Popović
Costumes: Jana Stankovski
Imagine a tree canopy – you in it. Far above the ground. Sounds of leaves crunching from the wind surround you. It is hot and you have just come out from above the ground. After 17 years spent gathering impressions, sucking on tree roots. You are well rested. Ready to sing. And so you do…coming from the belly of the earth, you bring knowledge. An enchanting yet unknown frequency. You have heard the Earth move. You have inspected it. You bring riddles, speculative prophecies. You would have brought them, if you haven’t been M.I.A.
A heave! Long awaited to be heard.
Look up! I am no canopy – I am a Herald! is a work that takes particles of different eras, but also different disciplines. It looks into speculative zoology/ Entomology, but predominantly the historical/biological attributes of Magicicada septendecim while in a parallel manner analyzing an Orthodox chant. The specific brood XI is believed to be extinct since 1954. There were speculations about brood being found again in 1988- these speculations were never confirmed.
The work draws a strong reference from a book Insect singers: A natural history of the Cicadas (1929). It creates its own new hybrid myth. A reincarnation of Brood XI (whose year of coming out from underground would be biologically- historically 2022) who has come to seduce us into an act of courting the world with an act of the most romantic call – giving out the speculative prophecy. Translating a new hybrid myth, from these sentinel species, we bring news of climate – love in the era of scarcity.
Now, finally, we are able to understand the frequency.
Music and text for this experimental prophecy were written using references from the Orthodox chants, but deconstructed towards a different context, riddle- like, abstract thoughts about climate change, famine, anxieties, etc. Behind every choral composition, there is a myth of our time connected to each “calling/message”.
Biographies:
Sanja Anđelković (1991, Novi Sad) is an audio-visual and textual researcher-artist. Dedicated to the field of played/speculative practice, where she reconsiders her own position within the system of gender, socio-political roles and/or traumatic moments in personal history, and examines the way in which the idea of ‘home’ is changed in the historical, geographical, or environmental context. She received the New Seed Award from the Prince Claus Fund from Amsterdam (Holland, 2021). Her work has been shown at “Fabulation for Future” – Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Potsdam (Germany) at the exhibition entitled “How to be a Posthuman”. She has cooperated with anthropologist Hsiu-ju Stacy Lo on a speculative CGI feature film.
Lav Kovač (1991, Novi Sad) primarily works as a drummer, keyboard player, composer and improviser, as well as a multimedia artist. He is interested in the combination of composition and spontaneity of improvisation and is constantly searching for new ways of expressing himself through music. As an author, he is active in the fields of jazz and contemporary music, applied music for dance and film, contemporary audio-visual projects.