On 18 November 2011 the London Jazz Festival presents a collaborative project „London sinfonietta: Written / Unwritten“, in which musicians from one of the world’s elite contemporary music ensembles will strike a creative dialogue with radical composer/pianist/improviser Matthew Bourne and Lithuanian composer/percussionist Vladimir Tarasov, exploring the boundaries between written and unwritten music. From 11 to 20 November 2011, Sound Games, an exhibition of Vladimir Tarasov’ video works will also be on show during the festival at the foyer of the Queen Elisabeth Hall, Southbank.
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Photo: Dmitry Matveyev
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According to art critic Tautvydas Bajarkevičius, one can consider
Vladimir Tarasov as the pioneer of sound art in Lithuania if by that we understand a genre using the medium of sound in the context of contemporary visual art. He is a world figure on the international art scene and in jazz, linked in Lithuania from the 1970s with the spirit of multiculturalism (also reflected in the Written/Unwritten project).
Winning international renown as a great jazz musician, founding member of the legendary Ganelin-Tarasov-Chekasin Trio, in the beginning of the 1980s, Vladimir Tarasov began taking interest in performance art influenced by the Fluxus movement and Moscow conceptualists with whom Vladimir maintained close relationship. He was one of the most active intermediaries between the Lithuanian non-conformist art scene and the Moscow conceptualists. In the 1990s, he produced several memorable installations in collaboration with Ilya Kabakov, one of the most prominent stars of this artistic movement, including The Red Wagon, Incident at a Museum: Water Music, and A Concerto for Flies.
It is from this period on that Vladimir has been developing his own language of artistic expression which encompasses spatial, sculptural sound and visual installations, video work, in addition to his musical activities as a world-renowned jazz drummer and percussionist.
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Fragment from Gobustan (2009)
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Sound Games is a sound and video installation project that has been developing for two decades with the constant addition of new works. This time the artist will introduce his video works titled Constellation (2011), Gobustan (2009), In Between (2009) and The Third River (2011), where he reverts to the basic sound structures and rhythms, exploring their interaction, as well as visual metaphors related to the sound. The stylistic expression of the video works is minimalist, meticulously organised, and focussed on corporeality with all its visual and acoustical properties. A subtle relationship between sound and silence, a delicate sense of time, and a controlled and economical visual expression invoke a meditative relationship between the viewer and the piece of art, creating a feeling of “transparent intangibility.”
Vladimir Tarasov in concert:
18 November, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Tickets: £12+bkg; can be booked online.
Vladimir Tarasov’s exhibition Sound Games:
11-20 November, foyer of Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Open daily two hours before the show.
Sponsored by the Culture Foundation of the Republic of Lithuania.
Organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in the UK and Galerija Vartai, in association with the Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre, Vilnius and London Jazz festivals and Southbank Centre.
It is not the first time that jazz musicians from Lithuania are invited to take part in this prestigious event. Last year it featured the appearance of the NuClear (Liudas Mockūnas – reeds, Dmitry Golovanov – keyboards and Marijus Aleksa – drums) – a trio of young and talented Lithuanian jazz musicians, who have already made their names through a number of successful international collaborations during the past few years. The same evening, on 19 November 2010, at ICA, Liudas Mockūnas and Marijus Aleksa have also participated in the joint project with trioVD from Leeds (UK), co-produced by the Vilnius and London Jazz festivals.
Information by the Cultural Attaché of the Republic of Lithuania in the UK and the Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre
