In autumn 2008, artist Marianne Halter and musician Mario Marchisella were artists in residence at an artist’s studio in Johannesburg. In the African metropolis, they found themselves in a strange and unfamiliar everyday environment.
The three-channel video and sound installation “The conductor’s fear of the soloist – ten small pieces for violin” in the large room at Perla-Mode is based on a film documentary of a performance in the immediate vicinity of the studio. Mario Marchisella, dressed in the classic suit of an orchestra musician, plays a violin concerto in the middle of a road junction, surrounded by a swarm of white and red shared taxis. At the junction, individual taxi drivers guide other drivers through the chaotic traffic using individual, expressive sign language.
The juxtaposition of the musical performance and the conducting taxi drivers creates an orchestrated interplay. The violin playing blends with the never-ending flow of winding and noisy cars. The gesticulating taxi driver conducts the violinist, who is lost in his own world. Is the situation real or cleverly staged?
In the message salon, on the first floor of Perla-Mode, Marianne Halter exhibits works created during and after her stay in Johannesburg. On her journey through South Africa, the artist finds herself in a misty landscape that evokes memories of Entlebuch in Lucerne. The photographed landscapes can no longer be clearly identified.
Marianne Halter’s and Mario Marchisella’s works seem legible at first glance, but upon closer inspection, their assertions increasingly raise questions about supposed classification and fixed ideas.