La Pesch – Conservation Conversation. A Sound Essay.
Tuesday, 8 September⋅2:30 – 3:00pm
At 2.30pm today – in the audio essay ‘Conservation Conversation’, Leipzig-based sound artist, author, director, and curator, ‘La Pesch’, asks – “How do we approach a new place? And what should we take home from it?”
The rural area of Tescani in Romanian Moldavia is characterized by reverberating sounds waving between hills, farms, and plenty of dogs. Up the hill on the edge of the village lies a small museum in honour of the Romanian composer, George Enescu. A mansion with its own little forest. But the grandeur of the past shows cracks. Humidity sneaks up the walls. Red, aristocratic patterned carpet hosts historic notes, furniture, and instruments. Mice ate the hammer felt of the piano – the piano on which Enescu finished his opera ‘Oedipe’. Today it is untouchable. Packs of visitors come in coaches, have a quick look, bathe in some mellow notes, and climb back into their vehicles again to take off.
What is conserved along the way? The piece follows, questions, deconstructs, and reconstructs the process of conservation.