So the Red Rose* at the Arkadien Festival, Kunstverein, Ebersberg.
In July 1985, independent-minded environmentalist Vanda Chan set off in Arkadia, her home-made houseboat, to sail the short distance from Pulawat towards Pulpap Atolls (Micronesia). A storm however caused her to change course and the houseboat hit rocks close to an uninhabited island. Chan believed she would be found quickly, but her solitude would last over 8 months before she was rescued.
Chan managed to salvage a few personal artefacts including an old atlas (by the radical geographer Élisée Reclus **), a cassette player, a broken ship radio, and most importantly, a box of recordings of radio broadcasts which had accompanied her on previous expeditions. The radio was irreparable, but she managed to fix the onboard solar panel system to power the cassette player. To pass time, and what would become a regular daily routine, Chan would browse through the Reclus atlas whilst playing the tapes.
In complete solitude, she became engrossed in listening to and making playlists of the recordings and this became a catalyst for undertaking imaginary travel, where her only option was to look towards her own imagination. The tapes were no longer simply a collection of songs but virtually prompted her to move from place to place and imagine the future.
Project
Artists Derek Tyman and Andy Webster are interested in the potentials for music, certain key recordings and related structures to act as platforms to reimagine what future life might be like.
For their project So The Red Rose they have used the photos of the Arkadia as a guide to reconstruct Vanda Chan’s storm damaged houseboat by the coast in Cornwall, England***. They have invited artists, musicians, composers and curators to respond to Chan’s story, the imagined reconstructed house-boat, and to produce their own recorded audio journeys.
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These audio journeys were broadcast from Cornwall daily, to the Kunstverein, Ebersberg, and from there to the public as part of the Arkadien Festival “Where is the way to Arcadia please?”. The tannoy used for the broadcasts in Ebersberg was formally used on the The Berliner Fernsehturm.
Notes:
* In 1985, three members of the band ‘Duran Duran’ formed a side project called Arcadia and released the album So The Red Rose. Needless to say, the radical potential of the album name and the significance of the Red Rose as a symbol of socialism were left unexplored. The album went platinum.
** Reclus advocated nature conservation and bioregionalism. His ideas are seen by many as anticipating modern social ecology.
*** The original plan was to do this in Ebersberg but they were blown off course by the pandemic.
In July 1985, independent-minded environmentalist Vanda Chan set off in Arkadia, her home-made houseboat, to sail the short distance from Pulawat towards Pulpap Atolls (Micronesia). A storm however caused her to change course and the houseboat hit rocks close to an uninhabited island. Chan believed she would be found quickly, but her solitude would last over 8 months before she was rescued.
Chan managed to salvage a few personal artefacts including an old atlas (by the radical geographer Élisée Reclus **), a cassette player, a broken ship radio, and most importantly, a box of recordings of radio broadcasts which had accompanied her on previous expeditions. The radio was irreparable, but she managed to fix the onboard solar panel system to power the cassette player. To pass time, and what would become a regular daily routine, Chan would browse through the Reclus atlas whilst playing the tapes.
In complete solitude, she became engrossed in listening to and making playlists of the recordings and this became a catalyst for undertaking imaginary travel, where her only option was to look towards her own imagination. The tapes were no longer simply a collection of songs but virtually prompted her to move from place to place and imagine the future.
Project
Artists Derek Tyman and Andy Webster are interested in the potentials for music, certain key recordings and related structures to act as platforms to reimagine what future life might be like.
For their project So The Red Rose they have used the photos of the Arkadia as a guide to reconstruct Vanda Chan’s storm damaged houseboat by the coast in Cornwall, England***. They have invited artists, musicians, composers and curators to respond to Chan’s story, the imagined reconstructed house-boat, and to produce their own recorded audio journeys.
These audio journeys were broadcast from Cornwall daily, to the Kunstverein, Ebersberg, and from there to the public as part of the Arkadien Festival “Where is the way to Arcadia please?”. The tannoy used for the broadcasts in Ebersberg was formally used on the The Berliner Fernsehturm.
Notes:
* In 1985, three members of the band ‘Duran Duran’ formed a side project called Arcadia and released the album So The Red Rose. Needless to say, the radical potential of the album name and the significance of the Red Rose as a symbol of socialism were left unexplored. The album went platinum.
** Reclus advocated nature conservation and bioregionalism. His ideas are seen by many as anticipating modern social ecology.
*** The original plan was to do this in Ebersberg but they were blown off course by the pandemic.
So die Rote Rose* beim Arkadien Festival, Kunstverein, Ebersberg.
Im Juli 1985 brach die unabhängige Umweltschützerin Vanda Chan mit der Arkadia auf, ihrem selbstgebauten Hausboot, um die kurze Strecke von Pulawat zu den Pulpap Atolls (Mikronesien) zu segeln. Ein Sturm zwang sie jedoch zur Kursänderung und das Hausboot traf auf Felsen in der Nähe einer unbewohnten Insel. Chan glaubte, man würde sie Chan glaubte, sie würde schnell gefunden werden, aber ihre Einsamkeit dauerte über 8 Monate, bevor sie gerettet wurde.
Chan gelang es, ein paar persönliche Artefakte zu bergen, darunter einen alten Atlas (von der radikalen Geografin Élisée Reclus **), einen Kassettenspieler, ein kaputtes Schiffsradio und, am wichtigsten, eine Schachtel mit Aufnahmen von Radiosendungen, die sie auf früheren Expeditionen begleitet hatten. Das Radio war irreparabel, aber es gelang ihr, die Solaranlage an Bord zu reparieren, um den Kassettenspieler zu betreiben. Um sich die Zeit zu vertreiben, und was zu einer regelmäßigen täglichen Routine werden sollte, blätterte Chan durch den Reclus-Atlas, während sie die Kassetten abspielte.
In völliger Einsamkeit vertiefte sie sich in das Anhören und Erstellen von Wiedergabelisten der Aufnahmen. Dies wurde zu einem Katalysator für imaginäre Reisen, bei denen sie nur auf ihre eigene Vorstellungskraft zurückgreifen konnte. Die Bänder waren nicht mehr nur eine Sammlung von Liedern, sondern forderten sie geradezu auf, sich von von Ort zu Ort zu gehen und sich die Zukunft vorzustellen.
Projekt
Die Künstler Derek Tyman und Andy Webster interessieren sich für die Potenziale von Musik, bestimmte Schlüsselaufnahmen und verwandte Strukturen als Plattformen dienen können, um sich neu vorzustellen wie das zukünftige Leben aussehen könnte. Für ihr Projekt So The Red Rose haben sie die Aufnahmen der Arkadia als Leitfaden verwendet, um Vanda Chans sturmgeschädigtes Hausboot an der Küste in Cornwall, England***, zu rekonstruieren. Sie haben Künstler, Musiker, Komponisten und Kuratoren eingeladen, auf Chans Geschichte und das imaginäre rekonstruierte Hausboot zu reagieren und ihre eigenen aufgezeichneten Audio-Reisen zu produzieren.
Die Audio-Reisen werden täglich aus Cornwall in den Kunstverein Ebersberg und von dort aus im Rahmen des Arkadien-Festivals "Where is the way to Arcadia please?" an die Öffentlichkeit übertragen. Das Tannoy, das für die Übertragungen in Ebersberg verwendet wird, wurde früher im Berliner Fernsehturm eingesetzt.
Anmerkungen:
* 1985 gründeten drei Mitglieder der Band "Duran Duran" ein Nebenprojekt namens Arcadia und veröffentlichten das Album "So The Red Rose". Das radikale Potential des Albumnamens und die Bedeutung der Roten Rose als Symbol des Sozialismus wurden natürlich nicht ausgeschöpft. Das Album wurde mit Platin ausgezeichnet.
** Reclus setzte sich für Naturschutz und Bioregionalismus ein. Seine Ideen werden von vielen als Vorwegnahme der modernen sozialen Ökologie gesehen.
*** Ursprünglich sollte das in Ebersberg geschehen, doch die Pandemie brachte sie aus dem Konzept.