ARI TEPERBERG

“...And man to man down upon earth

As planet to planet above.”

(Rachel Blowstein, 1928)

I am listening to The Planets (1917), a monumental orchestral piece by the British composer Gustav Holst. 

Can you hear it through me? It transforms into words, images, movement. 

I try to listen even deeper and hear the artist writing it, navigating a brutal war to which he did not enlist. His music turns on stage into matter in motion - it orbits, gets distorted, disappears and reappears.

I listen again and hear his attempt to address a system so much mightier than him, wishing for perspective and distance from the violence and despair of his own kind. His music becomes a vehicle with which I can travel far into the distant ends of the universe, where it fades out past the threshold of perception,

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When our GPS system tries to find a location it sends signals to four satellites. The time difference between the arrival of the satellites’ signals back to our phones tells us where we are.

In a bare solo piece that combines text, sound, movement and object work I try to understand where I am. By splitting and extending myself I measure the various distances around and within me, tracing the delay between the sending of my messages and their arrival.

Am I the satellite or its planet? 

Listening to the Planets weaves together a personal journal of the performer with a historical research about a composer, along with abstract images that derive from the study of satellites, star constellations, interstellar communication and delay.

The act of art-making becomes a means for time-travel, bridging between a time of crisis and an imagined future: It forges a piece of life within despair and violence into form that will hopefully outlive the darkness and preserve some of its turbulence in order to support a belief in the artistic act as a possibility for an empathetic and peaceful exchange.  

The piece offers an exploration of the intersection of technology and performance through a very analogue and bare performative approach. The work’s materiality introduces simple yet highly metaphorical electronic means - phones, selfie-sticks, earphones and the theatrical apparatus of the PA system. This establishes an intimate interaction with recent (almost retro) technological tools that function as companions, communicators, eavs-dropping devices, listening-inducers. They distance and bring closer at the same time, split the self and with the risk of navel gazing allow for self-observation.

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Maker and performer: Ari Teperberg 

Sonic dramaturgy and design: Nathan Marcus

Light design: Paulina Prokop

Costume: Caz Egelie 

Dramaturgy: Ricarda Franzen

Outside eye: Isadora Tomasi

Object animation advice: Thommy Kraft

Artistic advice: Sister Sylvester

Thank you: Inbal Yomtovian, Sabine Pendry, Noa Roei, Oded Yadin Rimon, Sjaron Minailo, Dor Frank, Sonia Kazovsky, Sandberg Instituut

The first version of the piece was presented as part of the Sandberg Instituut graduation show, concluding the master’s program Re:Master Opera.

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