Trawy i Kamienie

I attended a performance by the Trawy i Kamienie some time ago, and the first thing that comes to mind is that, if I were to tell you about it, I couldn’t identify it, I wouldn’t know how to name it! The performance took place at Humboldt Bibliothek in Tegel in the Reinickendorf district and was sponsored by Dezentrale Kulturarbeit Reinickendorf. The space was large, quiet, with book shelves and DVD shelves, the typical library environment. To the side, at the back of the large room, were the performers: Emilia Niezbecka (from Poland: singing, violin, dholki, improvised dance), Zhenja Oks (from Ukraine: voice, guitar, claves), Elisabeth Ruhe (from Germany: voice, flute, melodica), Stefan Ziemer (from Germany: Saxophone) and opposite the seated audience. Between the audience and the musicians was a taut string, one of those cords that reminded me of the cords on which clothes are hung out to dry. The clothespins were there but instead of cloths hung papers with poems printed on them! Suspended between those sheets were verses in ten languages by Rilke, Pessoa, Montale and many other milestones of world literature and then also some poetry written by musician.

Dreams, shadows, animals hanging by a thread ready to be caught. Was it a concert? A theatrical piece? A reading? An improvisation? A happening? Even the artists couldn’t agree with me on what it was … and to me, who doesn’t always like labels, it would seem to be safe to say that their intervention was all of these things together. The audience had to randomly choose a poem and read it while the band responded with music, an improvisation, movement and a further sung reading of the verses. All very evocative. The music (including jazz, world music, folk, chanson), melody and atmosphere matched the verses perfectly and we, in one show, were ultimately simultaneously listening to and reading poetry from all over the world.

I post below a few links and especially two poems, one is by Emilia Niezbecka and the other by Zhenja Oks.
Enjoy listening … enjoy reading!

Silvio Talamo