Hey Wave! - Maria Dundakova

MARIA DUNDAKOVA: „HEY WAVE!“, 18 OCTOBER TO 15 NOVEMBER 2007
STIFTUNG BRASILEA, WESTQUAI 3, CH-4019 BASEL

The Basel artist Maria Dundakova (born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1939) seeks in her work to express the dialogue that takes place between events in nature and those in urban spaces. All her projects foster and celebrate the interaction between people, media and moments in time. As the unseen mistress of the atmospheric, she works outside the art business on cyclical projects such as „Communication Art“ (1975), „The Path of the Shaman“ (1983), „The Rite of Spring“ (1986), „Farmhouse“ (1989) or the large-scale poetic project „Sun Rite“ (since 1991), which, as „form in flux“, comprises subprojects such as „Baptism“. In 1991, the spatial installation „Sun Rite – Baptism“, with the participation of Swiss musician Bruno Spoerri and Brazilian dancers Carlos dos Santos and César Volpe, was singled out by critics as one of the ten best works exhibited at the São Paulo Biennale. At the UN Conference on the Environment in Rio in 1992, a thousand people were lined up to enter the sea at Copacabana Beach; for safety reasons, however, the project was not carried through. In its place, the artist realized the project „A Man and a Wave“ for Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Modern Art. In a new manifestation of this ongoing focus on the art and culture of Brazil, Maria Dundakova’s current exhibition „Hey Wave!“ in Basel represents a further high point in her growth as an artist.

With its gradations of blue, the large wall-painting on the ground floor suggests the river as a metaphor for life and transience. The insertion of colour photos of urban worlds and the monochrome sound images lend movement to our thoughts, as in a river. These colours and forms in the river embody the restlessness of modern man. With the Rhine at their backs and Maria Dundakova’s wall installation in front of them, viewers are reminded of Heraclites‘ belief that „Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed“. But if „everything flows“, then man exists in a great vacuum that, paradoxically, offers a vast range of opportunities because everything exists at the same time. He is detached from such notions of left/right, above/below, good /evil or right/wrong. Every contradiction resolves itself in a world that is in flux, everything changes. This also means that man is as much of a riddle to himself as the river in which he stands.

If the river as it sweeps from its source to the ocean suggests a stream flowing into eternity, Maria Dundakova has given form to this very fascination for the infinite by presenting the „love relationship“ between a man and a wave in her Lifescape on the first floor in the form of photographs, sound and video. Series of photos show a man sitting like Buddha on a rock by the sea and contemplating the horizon. The performer’s body interacts with the water to express a wave, rapture, chaos, life and sound. Sunrise transforms his body into a shadow that recalls the silhouette of a dancer at rest. Stillness and movement harmonize with each other. The performer assumes an ecological position: by hearing and listening, he signals his awareness of the environment, in accordance with the motto „Respect for Life“.

Expressively themed, large-format photos take up the subject of „A Man and a Wave“ by creating an interaction between what seeks to come together and what strains to move apart. The two sound corridors resonating in the space connect sound traces of the waves on Brazil’s coast with urban sound waves, creating a tension between harmony and disharmony. The viewers perceive sounds of nature as a sensuous experience. Finally, a video installation shows dancer Carlos dos Santos again, this time at boisterous play with the sea, waves and sand. He hops, leaps and rolls, creating figures, physical contacts and gestures rooted in Brazil’s modern dance culture. Through this film, Maria Dundakova shows how difficult it is to get the body language of nature, i.e. of the ocean, to communicate with that of man – a bold enterprise that few artists tackle. Dundakova speaks of a dialogue between man and his living space, of a choreography of life that celebrates life’s natural rhythms.

Paolo Bianchi

Maria Dundakova Project „HEY WAVE!“ Brasilea Foundation, Basel, Schwitzerland

„THE WAVE“ Photography C-Print 180×120 cm

Maria Dundakova Performance „HEY WAVE!“

Vernissage good mood, Onorio Mansutti (left) Brasilea and Maria Dundakova (mid)

BRASILEA FOUNDATION First floor:

Project „HEY WAVE!“ Photography, design, video room. Soundscape
installation: CD.“EBB AND TIDE – JOURNAL OF ATLANTIC SOUND“,
two Atlanticsoundwave Corridor “, Maria Dundakova Opera viva, Brasil 07

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Two audiospotlight (each 30m length sound beam) (http://www.holosonics.com)
Audio design: Eddi Lecesne

Cykle „ A Man and a Wave“ 24 photographs each 40×50 cm.

„A Man and a Wave“ Photography C print 180×120 cm

Cykle „THE WAVE!“ C.print. photography each 180×120 cm in plexiglas

Project „HEY WAVE!“ Work in progress Project „BAPTISM“ Copacabana,
Rio de Janeiro 1992 Choreography for light and thousands of people and the ocean.

Cycle Graphics and drawing with gold, each 50×40 cm.

Sun Rite -24 Gold Hours 24 Graphics and drawing with gold, each 50x 40 cm.

Brasilea foundation, video room Video „HEY WAVE!“

Video „HEY VAVE!“ a Man and a Wave
Maria Dundakova: Script, Direction, Image Choreography, Video and Camera,
Audio Installation. Dance: Carlos Antonio dos Santos, Musik: Johannes Schutt
Soundscape: Atlantic Sound Corridor CD.“THE WAVE, ebb and tide – Journal of
Atlantic ocean sound “, Maria Dundakova Opera viva, Brasil 07

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Soundscape installation with two (30m length) audiospotlight
(http://www.holosonics.com), Audio design: Eddi Lecesne

Dance Carlos Anthonio dos Santos, Brasil Photography Cprint.

Cenário
Um homem esta apaixonado pela onda.
A onda, mestra em transformação, fugaz e deslizante, suave e encrespada, ela alisa com
uma intensidade erótica o corpo macio do homem. Muito eminente e imprevisível a onda traz subtis do homem. Ele vivencia uma realidade plena de visões intimistas Atraente e provocante apresenta-se ao homem, estimula seus sentidos, excita sua anima e rapidamente subtrai-se de sua visão, e logo depois reaparece.
O contato extasiante entre os corpos é um ritual, que surge da necessidade natural de
compartilhar do todo.

Ambiente da ação.
Uma praia de areia suavemente elevada com ondas características (brancas e encrespadas que se modificam constantemente), ambientes com luzes diferenciadas (noite, madrugada,amanhecer, luzes do dia e corpos repletos de emoções e sombras do acontecido).

Os interpretes:

1. A Onda: Murmúrios da onda atlântica no solo brasileiro.

2. Um Homem: Carlos Antônio dos Santos

Temas das coreografias:
Hey Wave „Um Homem e a Onda: Interação entre a linguagem da natureza e humana:
Vídeo, fotos, e gravações dos sons do oceano, a onda e as nove performances da dança deCarlos Antônio dos Santos / Bailarino brasileiro.
Festa para as nove „Essências da Água„ Água = Tempo infinito, Água = O delírio, Água = A mestra Água = O caos, Água = Mãe & Amante, Água = Vida / Prazer, Água = Começo e fim, Água = Sonoridade, Água = O alimento diário, água e fogo.

Serie de Imagens:
O encanto, de eternizar em menos de um segundo, o momento (memória), é ao mesmo tempo a atração de fotografar. A fotografia capta o movimento e o transforma em um monumento temporal. Projeção de slides e negativos fotográficos ampliados, de tal forma que as imagens em movimento (Vídeo) e as imagens estáticas (fotos) em série, façam uma (Filmstory) descrição da dramaturgia da obra “Um Homem e a Onda – Opera Viva“.
Para o espaço da apresentação desta obra será construída uma instalação sonora (Sound-Installation), baseada nos sons gravado na praia. (Diversas expressões características daonda).

BRASILEA FOUNDATION Ground floor

Installation „Urban and Nature Wave“ & Soundscape „Bees Score“
38 Photography C print in plexiglas and mural painting

The work beescore is based on the ancient greek experiencestructure (Peripatetic), peripatetic means to promenade or the promenade.

Peripatetic Performance: Participation in the bee-score.
The aim of this work is to advance the nonlinear open way to a vision&sound-experience. Every picture has its own colour&sound. Every contemplator can compose through his own movement (walking forward and backward, up and down) again and again a new and can eperience fully his own sense-scenery.

Maria’s resin paintings (the color patches) serve as sonic membrane for small piezo contact microphones. All sound samples have different length and start initially simultaneously but shift out of phase of each other to develop a sense of movement. The audio quality manifests itself in different ways due to the different resin materials used.

It is an intimate 9-channel sound installation: The visitors hear a gentle and rather high sounding ambient sound. Initially, the source cannot be located due to the invisibility of the piezo loudspeakers but one will feel a horizontal movement. The closer the visitor approaches, the clearer is the sound’s migration pattern.
Interaction color frequenzies & sound spectrum Audio Design Eddi Lecesne

120 Beeswax, pigment and lacquer Paintings. 20×30, 50×30, 60×30,150×30 cm.

Soundscape „Bees Score“

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A Man and a Wave Song

my destiny
you never die
never
never
the echo of my laugh breaks
into thousands of drops
the echo of my cry vanishes
in the light of sunrise
my steps – like lead
are slightly
wiped by
your light body
our conversation
is heard by all mussels
the fishes pass it on
please keep my desires a secret in your dark depth
do you see me
I am right here
a tear in your eyes
do you see me
now
here I am again
in love with you
your dance, your body, your lust
I am here
open up your mouth
and I will give you my breath
open up your deptand I will come with you open up your eyes
and look at me
I am here!