AquaPhone Performance 2015
Štúrovo (SK), June 6th, 2015 (Saturday), 11:00 – 22:00
At the beginning of the nineteen fifties, the bridge between Štúrovo (Slovakia) and Esztergom (Hungary) was in ruins. It was almost impossible for relatives and friends on each side of the Danube to get in touch or communicate. People would go down to the river, mostly on windless evenings, to talk to each other. The water carried the sound of short messages, often encoded, to the other bank half a kilometre away.
The AquaPhone performance refers to this phenomenon, honouring all the lives whose secrets had at one time been entrusted to the Danube, recalling this testimony of people's yearning to talk together, and of their inventive genius bridging borders and distances under difficult conditions.
The Swiss musicians Alfred Zimmerlin and Markus Eichenberger took up the idea of Hanneke Frühauf and created this performance, a musical improvisation on a dialogue. Text written by Hanneke and Karol Frühauf will cross the Danube in the original German and in Slovak and Hungarian translation. It will be accompanied by improvisations on cello and clarinet by the Swiss musicians.
The performance follows the IXth Bridge Guard Book Festival in Štúrovo with participation of publishers from Slovakia and Hungary. Also in the pedestrian zone will be a commedia dell’arte theatre production for children and adults. In the afternoon first the „Bridges, epochs, Budapest“ exhibition will be opened at the Municipal museum and a book presentation and a chat will honour the 10th AquaPhone in the Bridge Guard House. After a musical intermezzo with Marek Piaček the 33th bridge guard Torran Anderson from USA provides an insight in his works produced in Štúrovo. In the evening DJ Markus Eichenberger will look for good music and seasoned supporters for food and drinks.
The program can be found here
photo: Piotr Tysarczyk
