MA BOHÈME
Lisa Schiess


"Ma Bohème (Fantaisie)" is a sonnet of the French poet A r t h u r R i m b a u d. The meaning of "sonnet" could be translated into "sounding poem" (sonars) and derives from a type of poem consisting of 14 lines from the 13th century. The poem "Ma Bohème" describes the departure (way) for the liberties of the life, the outbreak from a world shaped by conventions. Rimbaud wrote this sonnet in 1870. He had just turned16 years old!

In my project I took the sonnet MA BOHÈME by word in order to make it sound. The poem was formed by playing at four different dice (WÜRFEL / SPIEL! / SONETT / BOHÈME). By using six sequences of notes a composition developed, which formed the basis for six different composers to write a music piece on. (Ali Osman, Nahla Mattar and Khaled Shokry from Egypt; Annette Schmucki, Christoph Gallio and Alfred Zimmerlin from Switzerland)

During the performance the six pieces of music are accompanied or framed by a seven-pieced video with the title "s o u s l a G r a n d e – O u r s e ". The seven video sequences that each last approximatly 3 minutes form bridges between the individual music pieces (regard supplement). The work consists of two parallel running video projections, which show a carride through Cairo up to the p y r a m i d s and a carride through Zurich up to the mountain „S ä n t i s“. The original tone of Cairo and of Zurich result into a kind of "musique concrète".

At the Biennale in Cairo the video " s o u s l a G r a n d e - O u r s e " will play as an installation during the whole exhibition time. For the project MA BOHÈME a catalog with an introduction by Giovanni Carmine, poetic texts by Dogan Firuzbay, Peter Z Herzog, Nadine Olonetzky, Bruno Ronfard (Cairo), Peter Weber and Raphael Urweider will be published including a CD with the 6 music pieces.



W o r l d - P r e m i e r e : December 13th and 14th 2003 > in the context of the 9th Biennale Cairo at Saqqyia/Zamalek.
Premiere in Switzerland: January 16th 2004 > at the Thurgauisches Kunstmuseum Kartause Ittingen
further performances: January 28th and 29th 2004 > Helmhaus Zurich/CH
January 31rst 2004 > Kunsthalle St. Gallen/CH


Zürich 11.13.2003
Lisa Schiess