Stifter’s Dinge: Heiner Goebbels, Ambika P3, NW1 - review

 
P53 Art Exhibition
5 November 2012

Heiner Geobbels has described Stifter’s Dinge as a play with no actors, the protagonists of which are objects and materials, particularly five pianos which play themselves, accompanied by voices, projections and atmospheric son et lumiére.

First shown in 2008 here at Ambika P3, the vast former concrete-testing hall for the architecture department of the University of Westminster, it normally takes the form of a performance, and indeed there are daily ones between November 13 and 18. But from tomorrow until Sunday, a new version, which the Goebbels calls The Unguided Tour, allows visitors to walk around and within the stage set — and the results are spectacular.

The title, meaning Stifter’s Things, refers to the German romantic writer Adalbert Stifter. You needn’t know anything about him to enjoy the work but his minutely detailed description of the natural world serves as a guide.

What you experience depends on at what point in the four-hour sequence you arrive. The pianos, with their strings and hammers exposed, are arranged on a huge platform which moves forwards and backwards over three reservoirs of water, often lit by vast spotlights around the space.

Screens drop down, reflecting the movement of the water or showing projections of bucolic artworks by the Renaissance painter Paulo Ucello and the Dutch classical landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael. Voices, like a reading of one of Stifter’s stories, an interview with Malcolm X and a song by Colombian Indians, echo around.

All around are objects producing strange noises — a hydraulic arm hits a lone guitar string producing an abrasive drone; a long plastic pipe is hit by a beater, prompting a deep, resonant pulse. The pianos might play a lilting melody or emit sharp percussive clangs and trills.

Goebbels’s brilliance lies in collaging these elements together. I will never forget the spectacle of standing before the pianos as they repeatedly played mesmerising arpeggios, their hammers dancing frenetically. Then, as they stopped, their platform moved backwards to reveal a magical carpet of icy smoke over the reservoirs.

Timings vary, so check Artangel’s website. Catch this if you can.

The Unguided Tour until Sunday (020 7713 1400, artangel.org.uk)

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