Jean-Baptiste Barrière
Recently, a high official of the French Ministry of Culture, responsible for matters concerning the use of technology in art, declared in a public debate, without a trace of humor and no obvious intent to provoke, that radio had never generated an art form.
Liberovici’s “64“ project and its realization again offer clear proof to the contrary.
“64“ shows how new art forms – ranging from the “Horspiel“ to what Andrea Liberovici rightly thinks of as “Sound Theatre“ – have a successfully set in motion a development that started from broadcasting and then went on to acquire its own original, different and innovatory independence as interdisciplinary heir to both theatre and concert. Andrea Liberovici, composer and director, conceived this Oratorio for Actors in 64 minutes – 64 figures – 64 sequences as a musical path through the sound memory of The Living Theatre starting from John Cage’s participation up to the present, and using the voices of Judith Malina, Hanon Reznikov and Ottavia Fusco.
He invites us on a journey – sometime hyper-formalist but nonetheless resolutely sensitive – through the memory of one of the most important adventures in music and theatre of the 20th century. Crazy and out of proportion, it’s a project which he controls and manages in a perfectly convincing way.
Liberovici took as his starting-point for this project the principle behind the musical revolution brought about by John Cage: “ I changed my way of composing. Instead of making choices, I chose to ask questions“. He makes free use of the I-Ching, though without any mysticism, cheap techno-mania or aesthetic dogmatism, as well as the contemporary electro-acoustic technologies made available by the Musical Research Group (GRM) of the Institute National de l’Audiovisuel. By doing this he continues the speculative spirit of this institution generated by O.R.T.F. Research Service created by Pierre Schaeffer.
Thus research, improvisation and composition, rigour, chance and innovation, memory and creation are united into a single form, in an historical reflection on art and creation that engages in an ongoing interrogation about creative processes – providing the uncultured protectors of culture don’t object.