Thursday, November 21st, 2013, 19.00 (opening)
Sabine Groschup
(JC{639}) – Experimental Film / Video Loop
(JC{639})
(JC{639}) is an experimental documentary film dedicated to John Cage on his one hundredth
birthday, which was celebrated around the world in 2012. At 29’14’’12, (JC{639}) is exactly the
length of the premiere performance of John Cage’s composition ORGAN2/ASLSP by Gerd Zacher in
Metz in 1987. (JC{639}) commemorates John Cage both in its focus on the ORGAN2/ASLSP
performance in the Halberstadt Organ Project and in its approach to John Cage’s dealings with
chance. In making (JC{639}), it was important to me not to take the conventional path, but to step
into unknown territory and, inspired by John Cage, to try something new. Thus the sequence of
individual scenes in my film is determined by chance, that is, non-intentionality—by a human being
who selects succession of stills at random. Persons close to Cage or for whom John Cage’s oeuvre
and influence have special personal significance will do the »drawing«. The individual scenes in
(JC{639}) can be classified within four different categories or forms of expression: silence, space,
sound, language. These elements are manifest within fixed structures. Moreover, each scene can be
viewed as a note. And just as the notes succeed each other randomly, so does the composition of
(JC{639}) proceed. (JC{639}) has 89 scenes. Using chance operations (random drawing) results in the
following number of possible scene sequences: 16508E + 136 =
16,507,955,160,908,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00
0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
[Sabine Groschup]
The first variation, (JC{639}) #1, carried out on January 9, 2012, by the Slovakian curator Jozef
Cseres for the exhibition Membra Disjecta for John Cage. Wanting to Say Something About John, was
released as a DVD in conjunction with the 13th sound change (Klangwechsel) at the John Cage Organ
Project in Halberstadt on October 5, 2013.
[Further information: http://johncage639.sabinegroschup.at]
Sabine Groschup
Sabine Groschup first studied archaeology, ancient and early history, and architecture, then painting
and film animation with Maria Lassnig at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Studies with Nam
June Paik brought her to the Art Academy of Düsseldorf. Her works on film includes numerous
animated films as well as experimental documentaries that have been shown worldwide at festivals,
in cinemas and on television. Her internationally exhibited visual oeuvre is complex,
interdisciplinary and involves the most disparate media. It ranges from painting on transparencies,
mixed media, film-, video- and sound installations as well as photography to textile objects,
embroidered art and textual works with poetry. As an author, she publishes narrative literature
(Alicia und die Geister, 2005; Teufels Küche, 2008; Tim und die Blumen, 2009). She is co-editor of
the standard work 'Die Kunst des Einzelbilds. Animation in Österreich – 1832 bis heute' (Verlag
Filmarchiv Austria, 2010). In 2012 she received the Prize of the City of Innsbruck for her artistic
work.
http://sabinegroschup.at | http://www.sabinegroschup.mur.at