Liza Rinkema Rapuš: carry-cut-salivate

‘Aeroponic’ – root systems nourished by air – Acts is the name given to the nomadic Dutch Art Institute’s final Kitchen presentations. Each participant addresses one question, as a practice of engagement.

Here you will find the documentation of Liza Rinkema Rapuš's presentation as filmed by Baha Görkem Yalım. The written report is by Hubert Gromny and it includes a summary of the comments by esteemed guest respondents.

carry-cut-salivate

Liza's question: How to speak with somatic noise?

Liza's introduction: Do you know how they say that a mountain is materialized memory? The sediment remembers, and gives a physical presence to the past. And even though it might look solid – in its core it is a dynamism, constantly taking shape. I see the same in language – a dynamic material which remembers. It remembers within mouths and throats, passing through skillful gestures of the tongue and the body.

Hubert's report: The audience is invited to enter the stage and sit on the pillows and stools distributed in clusters surrounding pieces of paper with text lying on the floor. While the audience settles in, three performers begin to walk slowly around the stage while humming and vocalizing quiet melodies (Liza Rinkema, Cristina Emmel, Izaro Ieregi Gonzalez). Their voices are slightly amplified with microphones. After giving the audience some time to arrive Liza begins to speak in Dutch, soon switching to English. When she pauses, other performers follow up and continue uttering the text. At moments all of them join in the chorus to emphasize parts of the text. Repetition in a refrain-like fashion is another means of emphasis. The spoken essay-poem is being vocalized and musicalized by voices of the performers during their movement. The stage is bathed in a soft yellowish light and most of the audience lies down on the floor. At a certain point the forth performer–Pelumi Adejumo enters the stage to recite the poem in a strong, loud voice. After ending the poem with singing powerfully Pelumi leaves the stage. Collective recitation during the presentation reflects on the notions of cutting, tongue, language, noise and tone. Performance fades out with quieting of voices. 

Ana Teixeira Pinto posed the question of the somatic and the relationship between speech and embodiment. Ana commented on the use of the chorus within the performance, and connected it to the foundation of the Western theater tradition and invention of the audience in Greek tragedy. Introduction of the chorus designated the border between the audience and the performers. Unlike in the ritual, where the audience is taking part, the tragedy invented a viewer, who is separated from the action. The chorus represents an ideal viewer, who has a birdlike view on the chain of events. Another aspect which drew Ana’s attention was an interplay between monoglossia and polyglossia—terms used by Mikhail Bakhtin to differentiate the speech of the dominant class from more pluralistic forms of utterance. In this performance the question of gender intersected with the relationship between monoglossia and polyglossia, and tapped into the notion of xenoglossia, which could be described as “speaking in tongues”. Xenoglossia refers to the register of speech, which does not have a meaning in a secular sense—is not meant to be understood outside of the ritual.  

Aziza Harmel referred to Ana’s comment on the somatic and stated the importance of using that term for speaking about the power of noise. Through the somatic noise signifies the resistance towards imposed attribution of qualities and allows to acknowledge its own ambiguity. Historically noise was recognised as what exceeds the logical framing of codes and orders. As such noise has to be inherently difficult to decode—too chaotic to be measured it is resisting against epistemic violence. Violence of how certain articulations are deemed to be active or passive, belonging to orders of knowledge or orders of feeling. Inability to decipher noise brings awareness of the alienated position of the subject. Aziza evoked a line from the presentation, which declared that the presence of voices proves that the past does not exist. Building connection between the notions of voice and ghost, Aziza spoke about the body as a carrier of the past which exteriorizes it in the present through invocation of multiplicity of voices.

Chiara Figone reflected on the performance through her experience of working in publishing. Working in publishing demands constant reflection on language and questioning what does it constitute and how it affects the movement of bodies within space. What stood out in the performance was how through the voice and through creating multiple layers and a variety of articulations, the act of pronouncing the speech was evacuated from the fixed position of the language. Another aspect of the presentation which Chiara spoke about was its haptic quality. The words allowed to feel a form of touch through the haptic and tangible qualities of the sound. Within the tactile approach to language there is a way to liberate bodies from constraint and articulate differently. Reflecting on the collective character of the performance Chiara referred to her own environment of working and reading together with a group of women, whose relationships are created through call and response dynamics, echoing, articulating and pronouncing the language together.

Liza Rinkema Rapuš's "carry-cut-salivate" was presented before live audience at the Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy on July 10th.

Find the overview of all 24 AEROPONIC ACTS 2022 here: tuttə (le) rottə - all (the) ways: unfixed