Grasev Nrt Re

GRASEV NRT RE
Fabio Bola / Fabio Mourilhe
This work proposes a surgical intervention and a sonic archaeology operation on one of the monuments of Brazilian literature, the novel Grande Sertão: Veredas , by João Guimarães Rosa. Using a radical vertical “cut-up” on pages 124 and 125 of the book, 1968 edition by Editora José Olympio, the piece treats the printed page as a geographical territory . The strips of paper become fissures in the landscape of Rosa's prose , destroying the horizontal narrative to release the raw, phonetic, percussive, and unfiltered language of the sertão (backlands). It is not a reading, it is an excavation.

Concept​
The artwork “GRASEV NRT RE” establishes a tense and revealing relationship with Grande Sertão: Veredas by João Guimarães Rosa. Through the technique of vertical “ cut -up ” applied to pages 124 and 125, the artwork does not seek to “read” the book, but rather to “excavate” its raw material.
The page transforms into a geographical territory, vertical paths. Guimarães Rosa transformed the geographical backlands into a metaphysical backlands. In this work, the printed page is treated as the very physical territory of the backlands. The vertical cut acts as a geological incision. The strips of paper are no longer lines of text, but narrow "paths," canyons, or fissures opened in the landscape of Rosa's prose . By reading vertically, interpreters do not traverse the backlands (horizontal narrative), but plunge into its subterranean depths, revealing strata of phonemes that were buried by syntax.
Rosa's work is, in itself, a radical break with the standard form of the language. He invents words, distorts syntax, and forces the reader into a new relationship with Portuguese. “GRASEV NRT RE” takes this premise to its extreme. If Rosa breaks grammar to create neologisms, this “ cut -up ” breaks the word to liberate the phoneme. It is a kind of “microscopy” of the text: by destroying the immediate meaning of the sentence, the atomic, vibrant, and percussive structure of the language that Rosa constructed in his text is revealed.
Grande Sertão: Veredas It is an immense oral monologue by Riobaldo . It is a sophisticated speech, but rooted in the voice of the jagunço (bandit). The resulting score from the vertical cut – full of sighs, blocked consonants, isolated vowels, and glottal noises – returns the literary text to a state of pre-syntactic orality. It is the sound of the sertão (backlands) before it organizes itself into rational thought; it is the noise of nature, of physical effort, of fear and violence that permeate the book, now manifested as pure sonic texture by the two performers.
The very title of the work, “GRASEV NRT RE”, functions as evidence of the process, a phonetic ruin of the original title. GRASEV contains letters from the initials of the original title GRA nde SE rtão : V eredas. The remaining letters are the wreckage that survived the cutting operation. The title announces, from the beginning, that the viewer is facing the fragments of something deliberately imploded to be reconfigured .

Formation: Vocal Duo (Equal or mixed voices)

General instructions for interpreters:

Each performer receives a strip of paper. The phonemes must be read aloud, not as words, but as isolated, repeated, stretched, whispered, shouted, sibilant, guttural sounds, etc. There is no fixed rhythm. The phonemes can be read from top to bottom, from back to front, or chosen randomly.

General information for reading :
1. Notation
The images will not be transcribed into traditional musical notes. The images themselves are the score. The paper acts as a vertical timeline (from top to bottom).
Y-axis (Vertical): Time.
X-axis (Horizontal): Timbre and overlay.
Blank spaces: Silence/Breathing.
Ink/Text: Sound.
2. Distribution of the "Voices" (The Strips)
From the initial five strips, we can distribute them to create counterpoint and tension:
Voice A (Interpreter 1 ): Responsible for strips cut 1 to cut 8 .
Voice B (Interpreter 2 ): Responsible for strips cut 11 to cut 18 .
Conflict Zone (Tutti): Strips 9 and 10 are placed in the center within reach of both performers. At the end of their individual "sections," both perform the central strip simultaneously, reading it in chaotic unison.
3. Interpretation Instructions
How to read fragmented text (Phonemes):
Text Cut Off (Incomplete):
If the word is cut off at the beginning (e.g., "... nho "), the sound should emerge from a " fade-in " (crescendo).
If the word is cut off at the end (e.g., "with..."), the sound should be abruptly interrupted ( dry staccato ).
Example: in the strips, where you read “ma...”, “do”, “ Fa ”, “um”, the sound should be percussive.
Specific Vocal Sounds:
Isolated vowels (a, e, i, o, u): They should be sung with a long note ( fixed pitch chosen by the performer).
Isolated or clustered consonants ( ch , rr , lh , nh ): They should be treated as noise/texture (without a musical note, only a breathy, hissing, or tongue-clicking sound).
In the case of occasional phonemes consisting of three letters: they should be spoken in a natural, "journalistic" voice, breaking the abstract musicality.
Visual Dynamics:
Bold/Dark Typography: Very strong ( Fortissimo ).
Flawed/Clear Typography: Pianissimo ( Whisper ).
Blurred/Stained: Sound of a closed mouth ( Humming / Bocca) Chiusa ).
4. Other practical examples of reading
Looking at the top of the first image: “ma...” (Strong emphasis on 'ma') (brief pause) “do” (dry sound) (pause) “ Fa ” (Whispered and long: Ffffffaaaaa ...) (pause) “um” ( Glissando downwards) “o D” (the 'D' sound should only be the clicking of the tongue against the teeth)
If you can't read the phoneme, invent an immediate guttural sound. Try to create a "groove" with the fragmented words.

SEVEN PHONEMIC MOVEMENTS
MOVEMENT I. Slow Reading (Scanner)
The two performers read their strips from top to bottom, very slowly.
Rule: Strictly respect the white spaces between the lines as absolute silences. The result will be a sonorous pointillism ( ping-pong between voices).
MOTION II. Acceleration and Superposition (Loop)
The strips are swapped.
Rule: Quick read.
MOVEMENT III. The Center (Chaos)
They both read strips 9 and 10 .
Read simultaneously, as quickly as possible, repeating from top to bottom three times .
Abrupt ending on the last visible syllable.
MOVEMENT IV — “FRAGMENTATION”
Each performer chooses three phonemes from their strip.
Repeat them in a loop for 30 seconds, varying the dynamics and timbre.
The other interpreter responds with different phonemes.
MOVEMENT V — “COLLISION”
Interpreters read their strips simultaneously, but at different speeds.
One reads slowly, the other quickly.
When a phoneme is repeated in both strips, both pause for five seconds.
MOVEMENT VI — “REFLECTION”
One interpreter reads a 10-second excerpt from one of their strips and passes it on to the other interpreter.
The other person reads the partner's strip, imitating the other's tone or gesture, creating a "distorted version" of the original material.
Then, the other performer begins, and the initial performer imitates them.
MOVEMENT VII — “SILENCED DIALOGUE”
The performers read the strips silently, only moving their lips.
The audience observes the lip movements.
Finally, a single phoneme is emitted in unison, the last phoneme of the last strip.