To Marc Baron

Performance proposal for an ensemble of at least 6 performers (event score).

by Diego Chamy & Vered Nethe, October 2007

During the first half of 2007, Vered Nethe was doing mail art, sending collages and drawings by post to different people that we didn't know so much. One of those persons was Marc Baron, whom I met with twice at the NPAI Festival, in France. Though most of the works that Vered was sending were hers, we were doing some of them together. I unexpectedly found myself involved in making collages and drawings. The work that we wanted to send Marc was a kind of collage made out of a cardboard, of around 100 x 50cms with five holes on it. Three of these holes had photos of Vered's family attached on from the back. The piece had also a cloth stripe attached to it that allowed a person to hang it from his neck. It was as simple as beautiful, but it had to be used and not just exposed - something we believe is valid for any other art work, but in this case it was clear for us that the collage wanted to be somehow used. How to use it then? I decided to send Marc, together with the collage, an event score that included Vered's collage. That was the first sketch of "To Marc Baron".

A month later, Christian Kesten, from the ensemble Maulwerker, told me that the ensemble was looking for pieces with performative aspects and asked me if I have something to send them. I thought then about the score that we had sent to Marc. We took the piece and developed it so that it could fit an ensemble. I titled the result "To Marc Baron" and sent it to Christian. Some time later he told me that the ensemble didn't accept the work because of a part where the performers were asked to kiss the audience. The refusal was expected. The unexpected thing was Performing the Cube, a lovely video that Marc Baron made and sent us some time after.