Soon:
Walking my Bangalore Broom through Malleswharam
as part of the Ö1 Kunst-zum-Hören selection for Radiophrenia Festival 2025
prehistory
During a three-week residency in Tehran in 2015, I became aware of the broom as the sounding instrument of a city. I woke up early in the morning when the neighbor was sweeping the path:
Swing, swing, swing, swing, swing,
short, short, short, short, short
Swing, swing, swing, swing, swing,
short, short, short, short, short.
In between a back and forth, that was the rhythm. Six months later I experienced something similar in Mexico City:
Swing, swing,
short, short,
Swing, swing, swing, swing,
short, short,
Swing, swing, swing, swing,
short, short.
A completely different rhythm and much stronger than in Tehran. Since Tehran and Mexico City, I often pause when I hear someone sweeping - how does this broom sound, can I recognize a sweeping pattern? There are many different types of brooms and sweeping techniques. If it sounds good and a nice sweeping pattern can be heard, the broom will suit the player.
BesenBallett acts as a social sculpture.
As such, it creates new dialogues with its day-to-day urban spaces for performers and listeners in a shared experience.
Brooms are everyday objects and global cultural assets. Each “broom-type” has its sound and handling. From an artistic point of view, they produce actions that display their quality in the rhythm and sound of their execution; they are dance and music simultaneously.
The score KEHRPARTITUR is the basis of every BesenBallett performance and consists of various sweeping movements, which are the recurring audible and visible elements. Performance at every new place begins and ends with it. In between is room for variation, improvisation, and free sweeping.
The urban ground is mostly stone or asphalt. Action sites/play locations - where sweeping takes place - emphasize and amplify the sweeping sounds through their architectural form and surface. Urban space is experienced auditorily and in action as a dynamic living space.
Contact:
besen@besenballett.art