"36th Floor: Piano Solo"

McKenzy, Frankfurt Am Main, 2019

 

"It is very simple, this time. 

Leaning against no wall, a stand-up piano resides at the consultancy firm McKinsey Company for a year. Its geometry and accompanying seat incite the ghost shape of a body— sitting down. An empty mold for a body, reminiscent to the one of the worker at its desk. Here, the human is creating or recreating, recreational time — if allowed."

 

An old piano is placed in the lounge space of McKinsey, a consultance company with a notorious reputation of corruption and bad ethics.

For the opening of the private viewing of this small group show, we contacted pianist Jan Feltgen whom we discovered through the widely used platform Ebay Klein Einzage.

We meet Jan Feltgen for the first time in the McDonalds of Frankfurt Sud Station.

We discuss the performance. 

"I'm play mostly traditional or classical concerts", he says. "When I have to improvise it is mostly with the organ".

As he has never seen nor played the given partition that I have made before, he will have to interpret every note while performing live.

 

"Are you OK with this Jan? You can tell me if it's to hard or uncomfortable."

 

"Don't worry, if I can see the partition 1 minute before the show, it's all good."

 

 

The piano score itself is a collage of various compositions — amongst them, Mozart Concerto in Minor D*.

Some parts of the score are altered to reminisce the aspect of a glitching machine or the use of samples; and sometimes leave space to the pianist to improvise or modify on the spot. 

The piano itself is to us, an object of history itself.

 

THE PIANO
A MOLD
A DESK
FOR THE 
INVISIBLE GHOST 
OF LEISURE 

EMPTY
PRODUCTION
LABOUR
GRINDING
IN THE REAL 
SPACE
THE REAL 
OFFICE

Sourced from Metropol, Dusseldorf's oldest Arthouse cinema as part of a previous exhibition; SOMMER at Kunst Im Tunnel, in its previous life, the piano has played a role in the piece VDB Transit Company — a semi fictional and poetic moving company. 




Thanks to Jan Feltgen, who played the piece on sight — Victor Van Wassenhove to assist the installing of the piece. 
 

 

 

 

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