Circle Phases

Circle Phases
After VIOLIN PHASE (1967) by Steve Reich
by Lara Faroqhi

The film was developed and performed for a concert on 25. January 2018 at the Ehemaliges Stummfilmkino Delphi conducted by Steffen Tast. The recording is of four violinists of the Orchesterakademie of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

In the Minimal Arts, the circle is a recurrent form. When listening to Steve Reich´s composition VIOLIN PHASE (1967) I associated the regular, harmonious shape to the repetative musical motif he uses. The chalk line represents this one-bar motif.
With my hand I draw the cicle again and again, dividing it into 12 single phases in which the circle is reestablished time and again, following the time of the music. The animation is consciously relinquishing perfection of matching the music with the image. The postponements which occur between image and music are emphazising the complex claim this music makes: the technical brilliance of the violinist is opposed by composed spaces for free choice of speed within parts of the composition. When this is happening, the musical space seems to whirr around with uncertainty. Until the player reaches the next motif and the voices fit together again.

The film animation also shows the change of season (shot between October until December 2017) and change of light. This play of light and shadow accentuates the movement of time not just in a linear but in a spatial sense.