Hajnal Németh

Contrawork (version 3)

Performance, version 3, 2x6 hour long, opening of the new gallery space, Patrick Ebensperger Galerie, Berlin, 2013

Delivered by István Dankó, Vanessa Vieto (singers) and Simon Wahorn (as car mechanic), performing the song “BLUE VOLKSWAGEN GOLF”.

"Contrawork" is a contra-concert in the scope of which two different work processes - with contrary motivation and goal - are completed in the course of 12-18 hours. A car's meticulous disassembly into its parts - like a systematic and slow destruction - happening simultaneously with the piece by piece chanting of the destructed vehicle's parts - like a linear construction. To define briefly the gist of the piece: dismantling contra composing. The end-product of one action is the raw material for the other, so the score of the musical piece is composed by the system of the removed car parts.

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"As a Volkswagen I am the people's car since 1937

Small and affordable at each revision

A basic vehicle for family movement

For two unknown adults and three unknown children

For so many souls, for such long journeys

I am still present as a machine in blue blood

But I started to lose some of my attributes and features

As I know, yes I know

“I go shuffling out of life

Just to hide in death awhile”

By slow destruction I enter the bright - or I don't know what

But “I’m not afraid to die”

Do I still have some weight?

My body started to lose some of its parts,

I can’t hear myself functioning anymore"

(details from the lyrics “BLUE VOLKSWAGEN GOLF” written by István Dankó and Hajnal Németh)

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Ehibition view: Patrick Ebensperger Galerie, Berlin

Photo: Hajnal Németh