Commentary on the work by Frédéric Aquaviva
I have long wanted to make a large-scale work based on work by my friend, the poet and artist Joël Hubaut. I asked Joël to perform some words that appear on drawings from his Epidemik Diary series. The recording took place in July 2019 at the Resident Studio in London. The titles of Joël's pictorial panels are spoken by American artist Dorothy Iannone, whose hypnotic voice I was able to record in her Berlin studio a few weeks earlier. The realization of the score and composition of ANTIPODES took place at the legendary EMS Studio in Stockholm and was completed in November 2019 in my own studio in London. The piece is based on my ten-year collaboration with Loré Lixenberg, which began with my project AATIE (2010-2011). ANTIPODES makes use of the magnificent vocal range of the British mezzo-soprano. Joël Hubaut contrasts her parts with his dark a nd powerful voice.
All of Joël Hubaut's visual works deal with the notion of virus and the concept of epidemic. The current Corona crisis was not their occasion.
ANTIPODES consists of three parts:
I. Hell / II. Purgatory / III. Paradise
Each part is in turn divided into six sections, analogous to the drawings that form the starting point of the work.
At the beginning I thought of composing much simpler than usual, following the motto "never repeat yourself ”. If I have succeeded in creating something new, it is through a composition that combines both simplicity and complexity. A strange complexity in which supposedly simple elements mutually reinforce each other, making ANTIPODES a kind of hell of a divine comedy.
ANTIPODES exists in different editions of works:
– as QR code record sleeve without record
– as serigraph with QR-codes on canvas (50x70cm)
– as a space-sound concert (first performances: CMMAS, Mexico and Experimental Intermedia, New York)
– as radiophonic diffusion
In April 2020 ANTIPODES had its premiere on the website studioconcreto.net. The piece ran as a loop for 24 hours.
It is a piece that has confronted all of us with our listening habits!
Competition 2020 and the jury's statement
This year, 69 entries from 25 countries were submitted. An independent jury chaired by Olaf Nicolai decided on the winners in Baden-Baden on Friday, July 10, 2020. Other jury members were Julia Cloot, Michael Grote, Thomas Meinecke and Julia Mihály.
"The Karl Sczuka Prize of the year 2020 goes to Frédéric Acquaviva (* 1967) for his polarizing audio piece "ANTIPODES for voices and dead electronics", a multi-layered work that draws its sonic inspiration from heterogeneous contexts of the classical avant-garde: the tradition of acoustic and visual arts, experimental music theater and literature (from Dante to Isidore Isou).
Artistic claims and the position of the author are undermined by collaging avant-garde purisms in pasticcio form and transforming them into a burlesque. On a musical level, this attitude is reflected in the polarity of the human voice and synthetically generated sounds. The jury sees his work as a provocative signal in the context of today's listening landscape. "
The 2020 award ceremony had to be postponed
The presentation of the Karl Sczuka Prize 2020 planned as part of the Donaueschingen Festival had to be canceled, as did the Donaueschingen Festival as a whole. The reason for this was the high number of coronavirus infections and the resulting legal restrictions. The award ceremony was postponed to 2021.
