My Dog is My Piano, Part 3

On October 25th 2011, Antonia Baehr presents for the first time ‘My Dog is My Piano’ in the prestigious French Embassy of NYC (972 5th Avenue), in the frame of ‘Chords and Discords: Musical Patterns of Affinities’ - Walls and Bridges*, a conference on affinities with among others Hélène Sixous, Judith Butler and Donna Harraway (who can’t be there in person because of her dog). The event is hosted by Avital Ronell and François Noudelmann. In front of the golden walls, Antonia Baehr gives this sonic lecture-performance about the cohabitation of her mother Bettina von Arnim and her dog Tocki, who live together in the same house in the South of France since nearly four years at that time.

Six years later, the ethnographic archive of digital distribution, warehouse, invites the artist to perform fragments of the performance  in a self organised space in Berlin-Kreuzberg*. In the talk with the writter, professor and curator Nanna Heidenreich who is at that time teaching Digital Narratives-Theory at the ifs internationale filmschule köln, Antonia Baehr says : "This invitation by warehouse to contribute to an ethnographic online archive brought my mother’s dog to play being her piano again, since it is the perfect project for this invitation: an online archive about a live work about a kind of archive that is alive because that archive is played live everyday by its protagonists…"  

Played by its protagonists until Tocki's death in 2021 at the advanced age of 14, this archive is also alive through bodies who perform and create new versions of it, written by artists and students from Antonia Baehr's entourage. Perhaps the scores of these versions, now available on the Dynamic Archive, will inspire new ones?  

*Program of ‘Chords and Discords: Musical Patterns of Affinities’ - Walls and Bridges: https://www.les-subs.com/archives/1112/fichier/11_12_walls_and_bridges_… *warehouse, invitation for the performance of My Dog is My Piano by Antonia Baehr:http://warehouse.industries/en/entry/places-traces-warehouse-closing/

For more information about ‘My Dog is My Piano’, see make up productions’ website: http://www.make-up-productions.net/pages/productions/my-dog-is-my-piano… and the contribution to warehouse :  http://warehouse.industries/en/entry/my-dog-is-my-piano/

Credits of ‘My Dog is My Piano’:Concept, Composition, Performance: Antonia Baehr Dramaturgical advice: Valérie CastanSound: Fred BigotLight Design: Sylvie Garot, Rima Ben-BrahimSound Mastering: Angela AndersonAdministration: Alexandra WellensiekProduction: make up productionsWith the support of: FAR° festival des arts vivants (Nyon)Thanks to: Bettina von Arnim, Tocki von Arnim, Donna J. Haraway, François Noudelmann, Avital Ronell, Gertrude Stein, Villa Gillet / Walls and Bridges NYC. Infinite Affinities - Chords and DiscordsPremiere: 25.10.2011 & 10./11.08.2012Duration: ca. 50min.