Keeping Time : Seamless Transposition, Parrot on the Sly
If You Say Something, See Something, TENT, Rotterdam (NL), 2010
Curated by Mai Abu ElDahab with Guy Ben-Ner
audio cassettes, silk-screened T-shirts
Vocals : Ghislain Amar, Bitsy Knox, Gerwin Luijendijk, Elma Plaisier, Bat Sheva Ross, Arvo Leo, Kathrin Wolkowicz, Dennis Stolk
Drums : Diana Duta
Six cover versions of Romanian songs dating from late 90s to early 2000s were performed by an amateur drummer (the artist), together with several singers who couldn’t read or speak the Romanian language. The songs were recorded onto cassette tapes and made available during the exhibition at TENT.
In order to be able to sing in a foreign language, each performer created a personalized transcription of the original lyrics that helped them render the song more or less accurately. The resulting lyrics were silk-screened onto T-shirts and distributed to the visitors, as well as the staff working for TENT gallery in Rotterdam.