waschen schneiden hören

Oliver Bedorf/ Philine Herrlein

About 50 minutes

In his novel Paris Peasant, the surrealist Louis Aragon described the hairdressing salon of the 1920s in Paris as a place of contemplation. As a customer, I´m placing myself in the hands of the hairdresser – literally . While my hair is being cut, I close my eyes. Brief touches, smells and sounds are becoming the focus of an entertaining but intimate encounter. We are interested in this sensory space as a found location in the sense of an objet trouvé, and as a temporary performance space.

waschen schneiden hören is a performance in which we use everyday-sounds, recorded in the hairdresser salon and an interview with the hairdresser Douglas as well. Audio perspectives change during the show.

With audio – cassettes, being played on 6 portable radio recorders, we bring the recorded everyday – noises of the salon back there. We move the recorders around the room. Different resonance aspects of the surrounding space come to the fore. How does this corner sound? What is the noise of the sink where the customers hair usually is being washed? The performance is an investigation of the socio-spatial structure, using artistic strategies.

The attending listeners shape the place, but their existence is ultimately determined by the place.

The performance is aimed at art-lovers and at passers-by. We go to the hairdresser once again. We hear the scissors noise and the barber’s voice. We go deeper into something, we already know superficially for a long time.

Previous stations:

Salon Jags Hair/ Cologne on November 24th and 25th. 2018

Salon Pernille/ Cologne on October 6th, 2019

Installation in Lutherturm/ Cologne using text-fragments from the performance

03/03/21 – 06/03/21

Funded by Kulturamt Köln, by Bezirksvertretung Köln Ehrenfeld

and by Musikfonds e.V.