Larve project - singing performance - city church of offenbach, germany - 1998

 

Singing performance from a protestant church steeple.

 

10 days long. 5 times a day in 5 languages. The singing has islamic origin.

 

From the tower of an Evangelical church in Offenbach, a city with 55% non-German inhabitants, Nasan Tur gave a singing performance that was broadcast out over the city. A song used for the call to prayer (Ezen) in Islam was performed five times a day over ten consecutive days over a looudspeaker system. Tur sang in Turkish, Arabic and German. The song contained universal, in the sense of applicable to all religions, themes such as love, belief, hope, belonging and humanity. Song plays a dominant role in all religions, it is the key to release emotion. Tur's intention is, through this song, to flood the city with a strong energetic and emotional feeling. Widely differing cultures and belief systems live alongside each other in Offenbach, and yet in the middle of them this city centre church has all but lost its function, having virtually no congregation. The song performance thematises exactly this spiritually lost place and its surroundings. During the ten days a deep communication developed between the population and the participants. Italian as well as French, Spanish, Israeli, American, Greek and Polish nationals took part in the action, translating the text into their own langauges, practicing the song and broadcasting it themselves from the tower over the city. The performance produced widely differing reactions during this time, from positive consent and delight to indifference or total rejection.