Война и мир – or – I know where to find a broom

 
brooms in the upper foyer of the old building, leaning on wall alongside the Arnold Schönbergzaal. photo by anne wellmer

Война и мир or: I know where to find a broom

The title of the piece refers to Tolstoi's novel war and peace, one of my favorite books as it brings back the memory of me sitting on a cliff by sea in portugal while reading the book.

The composition consists of recordings that we made in the former percussion studio where I smashed about 70 glasses and bottles agains the back wall of the studio. At the end of the recording, I said “I know where to find a broom” and in the piece a processed and unintelligeble version of the phrase  appears over and over again.

Breaking glass has been meaningful to me since the early 90's when I made many recordings of smashing mirrors. The idea was to break the spell which claims, that breaking a mirror brings 7 years of bad luck. And it was a rebellion agains the good old "mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of us all". The smashing of glas, of mirrors, was an feminist act of liberation and it felt as such. 30 years later I still use those recordings in my work. But recently the recordings had lost much of their political meaning to me, because I simply enjoyed the sound, or so i thought.

For a couple of years I had been collecting glas vessels in all shapes and sizes, always carefully cleaning them after finishing the juice, jam or pesto, thinking I might use the glasses and bottles for home made jam, or ginger lemonade. I could not get myself to throw them away. Not until the idea came up to say good bye to the old conservatory building by smashing all those glas bottles inside the old building. Once again breaking glass turned into an act of liberation.

Them, shortly after the Royal Conservatoire had moved from its old building at Juliana van Stolberglaan 1 to Amare, Putin invaded Ukraine. Half a year later the war is still waging and Ukraine is still under seige and the old conservatory building is still standing and it has turned into a temporary home for two ballet schools, one from Ukraine and one from Belarus.

The summer  this year is dry and hot. The sun is shining and the sky is blue. Listening to these recording brings up completely different images now. The war has caused a worldwide recession, and everyone experiences how prices of fuel and foods are skyrocketing. Peace is no longer a given - it is precious and fragile and it might crumble from one moment to the next. 

We could do with some magic.