Felix Kubin foto by Evelyna Domnitch
06: A definition of
yourself.
I am an early
reflection.
06: If we don't act
with immediacy, capitalism will become our executioner?
It’s the other way
round. Capitalism forces us to act faster than we can think and
consume more than we can swallow. It compresses time so much that
there is no contemplation in work, no time to let the particles
settle that were thrown on the surface of the water. Life needs time.
Art needs time. Love needs time. We have to claim back time and
public space. Also, capitalism doesn’t judge the inner quality of
things, it only judges their immediate sales value. In its most
perverted (or maybe purest) form, capitalism means earning money with
money. This is incest and it leads nowhere.
06: Free time is
something we have to work for?
We have to buy
free time, unless we decide to drop out of the (working) society and
become hermits. Some people do that, and they are courageous. I am
not a hippie, though. I like taxis, modern buildings, vacuum cleaners
and elevators. I want to live in a modern world but detached from ist
daily rhythm, more like a ghost.
06: Why did Orpheus
turn and look at Euridice just before the exit?
In my radio play
version „Orphée Mécanique“ he didn’t look back. Actually, he
entered the underworld without finding Eura (he only found her
projection). And after he left Hades, he forgot where he was, so he
entered again. But in the original version he turned around because
he heard no sound behind him. We need sound for evidence. When I saw
my dead father lying on the floor, his silence was much more
horrifying than the way he looked.
06: How do you
perceive the rise of extreme right wing parties in Europe, that is
accompanied by a corresponding rise of extreme right wing parties in
Greece?
When the economy
gets bad and people have to struggle with poverty, right wing (or
extremist) parties always get strong. That seems to be a phenomenon
of history. Of course, the situation in Hungary and Greece worries
me. But most of all I am worried about Russia. It seems that they are
light years away from Glasnost and Perestroika.
06: Are radio
transmissions today as important as they were in the past? In which
ways?
Transmissions are
always important! Let’s just forget about commercial radio for a
second. I think that the ideal of radio has become more
important than ever. For me, radio can be a synonym for quality
journalism, in-depth features, radio plays, alternative music
programmes and experimentation with transmission in general. Of
course, hardly anyone listens to radio by antenna nowadays, only
people in cars do that. We mostly listen by internet and usually turn
on the radio randomly. We don’t care about the programme schedule.
There are some decent radio programmes on internet but most of them
lack something that public radio has: money. At the end of the day,
you need to pay a radio maker, so (s)he can take time to make
a good research. You need to pay the staff of a radio play
production: the author, the director, the musician, the actors and so
forth. And you need to pay the moderator, so he can prepare
for the programme. All of these paid people shall not be controlled
by a private company that is only interested in sales figures. They
shall be paid for work that is serving public interest, education and
a free spirit of culture. Having said that, the democratization of
internet has produced a lot of blogs and mini radio stations with
some brilliant perls amongst them. But on the long run I really
believe that it’s necessary to be paid for quality work, at least
if you want to keep a sustainability. This counts for artists and
musicians, too. Otherwise it stays a hobby.
06: What has been
your experience working with Christoph Schlingensief like?
I had met him few
times 10 years ago. Back then, I only compiled some classical music
for his theatre play „Atta Atta“, so I wasn’t involved too much
in the creation of the play. Few years ago, he wanted me to compose
music for his play „Eine Kirche der Angst vor dem Fremden in mir“
(„a church of fear of the alien in me“ – actually, the title is
hard to translate). But his request came too short in advance of the
rehearsals, I couldn’t do it. I think, one year later he died. I
always liked his ability to bring people together and create a riot
or protest. I liked his interfering with public spaces. He wasn’t
afraid of any confrontation. However, I didn’t like his aesthetics
very much. He was more an instigator than an artist to me.
06: Can you describe
what has been in your life your relationship with the dancefloor.
I have no special
relation to dancefloors. Dancefloors mostly create reproduction. They
are as much overrated as DJs. I like the idea of a club that creates
world, surprising, surreal and independent from the outer world. It
needs a lot of creative audience to achieve that, no consumers. I
don’t like DJs who play only one style of music and only care about
how they can please the crowd. They should rather go into politics
then. Parliaments should be dancefloors, DJs should be conductors,
dancefloors should be auditoriums.
06: What would you
like to do in the future?
I want to work with
foley artists and create a composition for a cursing choir.
06: Can you send us
a picture of you, of a place or of something else that best
illustrates your current state of mind?
I attached a foto
that Evelyna Domnitch took of me in Amsterdam in her sci-fi lab.
