YOKE

A performance by:

MYRIAM VAN IMSCHOOT

MARCUS BERGNER

& 

Tomoko Hojo

Myriam Van Imschoot is a performance artist based in Belguim, working through the medium of voice in performance, film and installation. Marcus Bergner also based in Belgium, has exhibited and worked extensively in the fields of sound poetry and experimental film. Tomoko Hojo is a sound artist based in Japan, and works at the intersection between sound, music and performance. Together they will join forces to mount a rare combination of sound poetry, performance and shadow art. Virtually everything in life involves shadows, either physically or metaphorically, but rarely do we recognise the presence and influence of such elusive phenomena. This performance emerges from reflecting on the ancient phrase lux lucet in tenebris ('light shines in shadow') and sets out to transform the performance space into a place of collective observation and listening. The force of the voice in many of its subjective/inner and social/outer manifestations will be the focus for the week long residency carried out by the artists within the space of GalleryGallery and across its immediate locality. And out of which the performance is to be shaped.

Based on a performance by Van Imschoot and Bergner titled YOKE that premiered in Belgrade in 2021, and emerged from a three month residency at the art and cultural centre MAGACIN. This long-running artist and community space in the centre of Belgrade operates from principles of open access, autonomy, social solidarity and diversity. Bringing an entirely new version of YOKE to GalleryGallery seems especially appropriate and fortuitous as it is an art space also running on principles of autonomy, community solidarity and artistic diversity. And as such, the performance delivers a special bridge of exchange and interrelation between these two radically independent and unique art spaces at different ends of the globe.

A number of disparate but inter-relatable historical or poetical perspectives serve as points of reference in terms of investigating the voice's presence, or absence, in the streets and spaces of Brunswick for the performance (these perspectives offer a basis for reflection and experimentation but will not be directly described or enacted within the work itself).The first comes from the French philosopher Paul Virilio who declared: “After having lost the street in the nineteenth century, people are now also losing their voice.”

Another arrives from an act of political intervention that occurred in Brunswick during the depression in1933. Involving the artist Noel Counihan and his comrade Reginald 'Shorty' Patullo who lead a 'free speech battle' on the corner of Sydney Road and Phoenix Street in defiance of anti-protest laws introduced at the time by the State Government. For Patullo jumped on the top of a tram to address the thousand of protesters and onlookers and was promptly shot in the thigh by the police and arrested. Whereas Counihan locked himself in a large steel cage in the street from which he addressed the same crowd uninterrupted as the police struggled desperately to break him out of the cage to be eventually arrested also. The publicity these acts of insurgence attracted and the following court cases were instrumental in having the laws against public protest retracted. The third perspective is from the French writer and playwright Hélène Cixous who wrote in Sorties:

“Voice!....the frantic descent deeper to where a voice that doesn't know itself is lost in the sea's churning... Agony – spoken 'word' exploded, blown to bits.”