Last night our friend Keith Hennessy from San Francisco performed "Untitled / improvised sound + action" at Sophiensaele Berlin in a collaboration with his companion, sound artist Jassem Hindi from Paris.
Watching Keith's performances over the years, I was not surprised by his radical, full-on, intense, political, anarchist, queer and risk taking performance. But this time he got me (and the rest of the audience) in awe and at the edge of our seats by doing a crazily and breathtaking circus balancing act with a clothing rack, see pictures below. At one point I really thought he was gonna smack to the floor and crush part of the audience... But of course he pulled it off. Phew.
Dressed from head to toe in an Versace-for-H&M-outfit, like a human clothes hanger, with suspense soundscapes from Jassem in the background... Wow, if that ain't punk!
After that he got us joining him, ranting at 'bankers who haven't been prosecuted for their financial crimes, while thousands of peaceful protesters have been arrested in the last months', by demonstrating the human microphone, the Occupy Wallstreet method of transferring speeches to larger audiences without electronic devices, just by repeating the speaker's sentences one by one.
Keith is currently working on a group piece called 'Turbulence / a dance about the economy'. This piece is 'a bodily response to economic crisis'. I already saw some very promising and inspiring work in progress and I can't wait to see the final piece. Check his website: http://
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| Keith Hennessy (hanging, center back) and Jassem Hindi (foreground right) |
All photos © Michiel Keuper
