Stop, Repair, Prepare

At the closing event of the exhibition, the pianist Luca Ieracitano will again perform »Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on ‘Ode to Joy,’ No. 3« by Allora & Calzadilla at the ZKM.

Allora &Calzadilla (*1974/*1971) have been jointly developing a multi-layered artistic idiom since 1995. Their work deals with history and current international politics. They reveal the complex dynamics at work in these systems by destabilizing and reconfiguring them.

In »Stop, Repair, Prepare«, Allora & Calzadilla cut a hole into the middle of an early 20^th-century Bechstein grand piano, creating a fusion of sculpture and performance. The performer stands in the gap inside the instrument playing the fourth movement of Beethoven’s ninth symphony with the famous chorus which is also known as »Ode to Joy« and was long considered the musical expression of interpersonal, universal fraternity, in a variety of different ideological settings. Today the piece is the official European Union anthem. In the performance, which goes beyond the concept of a player-piano and a playable piano, the performer has to reach out over the keyboard and reposition his hands such that he can hit the keys both horizontally and vertically mirrored while moving the instrument across the exhibition space with his body.