“During performances, I activate the sculptures I’ve made, using them as instruments and microphones. In this way, I pretend to play and sing playback to my broadcast music.
I’m fascinated by experimental music concerts and DJsets. People crowd in front of someone moving buttons or moving wires. They listen to the sound, but what do they see? What do we look at when we see a concert? What do they want to see? What do we really see? I never learned music. However, through my performances, I give myself the right to be a musician in my own way. Pretending to make music helps me to make music. It goes back to children’s games, in which pretending is a way of learning to distinguish between a representation of reality and reality itself. In fact, when I perform, I feel like I’m putting on a show for my parents, but in a more accomplished way.
I find an excitement and a freedom to be very pleasant, and I’m not the only one. Today, we’re witnessing a new appreciation of Lip-sync thanks to Drag and the TikTok app. There’s a real pleasure in pretending to sing.
The installation I set up to “play my music” allows me to create an aesthetic universe of the order of the valorized scrap. Indeed, I mainly use poor materials (polystyrene, foam, cardboard…) to which I give an organic form (which is meant to be). I then coat these shapes with paint and pigments. I add a few electronic-style elements, such as electric cables or pedals. This helps reinforce the idea that the sculpture could be electronic and actually work.
The mood of the performance oscillates between humor, absurdity and poetry. Indeed, when we divert everyday elements, it makes things absurd and creates a second degree. Our reality diverges, it’s called into question.
The spectators who discover my performances don’t know that it’s a faux-concert. It amuses me to discover how they apprehend my performances. Some get carried away and decide to believe it, while others realize, after a while, that it’s a fake and are disappointed. This raises the question of beliefs and how we deal with them.
To get a more concrete idea of what this looks like, you can see some of my performances on my youtube channel Nastassia Takvorian.”