BANDPROBE
ein Projekt von Antonia Nordmann und Katja Pudor
Claudia Funke, Band Practice
The situation of a musician playing in a band is significantly different from that of creating art in a studio: The practice space where a band
develops its songs is a site of collective creative production, whereas artists confront the blank canvas alone.
For Antonia Nordmann and Katja Pudor, the term "band practice" has become synonymous with various artists working
simultaneously in a single "pictorial space." The object is to contribute ones own work and working method in such a way that
" the communal whole takes on a form - a good form, one that conveys what you want to convey."1
The dynamic is much like the way band members play together, each contributing musical inspiration, an instrument or a voice to create a sound
at the same moment and in harmony. In this process of coexistence, the act of listening and spontaneously, creatively responding to other participants
is just as essential as defining boundaries between participants.
Nordmann and Pudor noticed that they both had a similarly playful approach to their artistic material, and they started working together
on a collaborative piece in alternating studios. This led to the idea of inviting several artists to attend "practices" lasting just a few hours.
Their ways of working, and their use of diverse materials such as cloth, wood, tape, light projections, paint, sound, rope, wire, foil and styrofoam,
are reminiscent of the use of sampling in music. The work emphasizes the processual, the fragile, the interchangeable, and it reflects the ephemerality
and speed of our perception of spatiotemporal movement. The initial, intuitive approach is just as important here as reflection and discussion,
reactions that allow for adjustments and open up opportunities for modification. The search for consensus on the basis of collective decisions
serves to refine the overall sound of the space.
If the artworks created at "practice" are comparable to the songs a band rehearses, then all the artists/band members play an equal role in
defining the image and the sound. It begins with a discussion in which participants work out the time frame for the creation of the work,
the relevant criteria in terms of individual inspiration, and where the work will be shown. A key prerequisite is the mutual assurance that
everyone will "play their part right." As Pudor and Nordmann emphasized to this author, " It′s about producing an overall sound. Action and
experience come to the fore - we don′t talk; we ′do. " This focused atmosphere, in which everyone is reacting to what′s happening beside him,
calls for definition and investigation, both of one′s own part in the work, ones personal authorship, and of the boundaries of the others.
How can the freedom of the individual be reconciled with equality within the group? At what point does the individual′s handwriting start
speaking a common language - at what moment does the band′s sound come together? These "experimental setups"2 transform the almost intimate
seclusion and isolation of the artist in her studio into a social interaction, the vibrant, interwoven interplay of a band.
1 Antonia Nordmann, in Bandprobe - Concert, directed by Anna Maria Weber, (Berlin: AugenZeugeKunst, 2011), DVD.
2 Annette Genz, "Bild-Räume," in Katja Pudor (Lelkendorf: Temporäre Kunsthalle Lelkendorf, 2010), exhibition catalogue.
Claudia Funke, Kunstwissenschaftlerin und Galeristin
