Curator Statement
CONCERTS & PERFORMANCES at the DIVAN DU MONDE
Meetings on the Mouhoun, Burkina Faso.
The Water Festiva/is a travelling festival that goes into isolated villages and meets with audiences that have never seen foreign artists. This audience participates by dancing, singing, and playing music, and, by interacting with the group of travelling artists, they participate in artistic creation. The route of the Festival follows the course of a river downstream, with water being the main theme. A collective creation is born from the meeting between the travelling artists and the village artists while they make their way downstream. This creation is the object of the show to be presented at ISEA2000. In January 2000, 22 people were united and followed the Mouhoun River (Burkina Faso) downstream. There were 11 artists, coming from different countries (France, the Ivory Coast, Niger, Canada, Austria, the USA and the Netherlands) and various artistic backgrounds (music, photography, writing, video, computer-generated music and web art). This downstream journey was an opportunity for meetings and exchanges with traditional music. 13 concerts brought together wandering artists and village artists. Knowing that the new tools of creation must not remain the prerogative of a small circle, Meetings on the Mouhoun allowed movements both new and old to be brought together, by means of computer tools.
ARTISTS:
- Dominique Chevaucher (France): voice, text
- Camel Zekri (France) guitar, signal processing
- Laurent Dailleau (France) theremin
- Aly Keita (Ivory Coast) balafon
- Yacouba Moumouni (Niger) flute
- Zack Settel (USA) signal processing
- Harauld SEXTUS (France) web art
- Atau TANAKA (Japan/USA) BioMuse
- Edwin Van der Heide (The Netherlands) MIDI Conductor.
- Plus three artists from Burkina Faso [names unknown?]
PRODUCTION
L’association Les arts Improvises in coproduction with le Centre culturel Andre Malraux scene nationale de Vandoeuvre les Nancy. In partnership with : AFAA-Ville de Grenoble, Ministere des affaires Etrangeres, Ministere de la culture DMDTS, Fondation France Liberte, Agence de la francophonie, Ministry of Foreign Affairs ofAustria, Dutch Embassy, Association Benebnooma Burkina Faso, ACDC Niger, OLATS, Mondomix.
- Dominique Chevaucher, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, Comédienne, chanteuse-improvisatrice, pédagogue artistique, artiste associée des Arts Improvisés camelzekri.com/dominique-chevaucher