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Pieces
by Anne Tardos
Born in France and raised in France, Hungary, Austria, living in the United States since 1966, Anne Tardos used 4 languages to relate the story of her life at The Culture House in Roskilde, with her multimedia piece “Autobiography in Four Languages”. A slide projection illustrated the stories of her nomadic childhood and adolescence, and pre-recorded text sometimes mixed with her renderings.
Anne Tardos also performed the work ”La-Ma-Na-Oa-Pa-Qua-Ra-Sa-Ta-Ua-Va”. She sang phonetic mantras on top of multi-track playback, building an impressive meditational chant sometimes with drone-like effects. Jackson Mac Low co-performed with Tardos on some events; i.e. reading of place names, travel itinerary etc. of their last European tour while showing slides and snapshots.
Kinder/Børn/Children
This event was performed by Emmett Williams, Bob Watts, Ann Noel, Alison Knowles, Ben Vautier, and others, who lined up on stage carrying life vests. The piece began by each performer putting on and inflating their life vests. Performing this action was the entirety of the event; some life vests opened, other didn’t.
Banquet
Anne Tardos’ performance was concluded with a vegetarian banquet on stage for both audience and performers.
1985
“Tardos showed slides that illustrated stories in Hungarian, French, German and English about her life and chilhood experiences as a refuge, sometimes spoken and sometimes as a medley of recording.”
- Henry Martin, “Roskilde. The Zetics of Zealus Zambias” in Artnews, p. 126
1985
9PM ANNE TARDOS - with Jackson MacLow
There was trouble with the sound equipment, the slide projectors didn’t work properly and that detracted somewhat from the simplicity of her stories about her origin, childhood and arrival in the United States, told in several languages, German, English, French etc, a mantra, sung with a multi-track playback, and the list of place names she and Jackson read - the travel itinery for their last European tour, with slides and snap shots they took along the way. The best piece came at the end, when 3 performers donned life-jackets, all different, which were to be inflated as fast as possible.
- Ann Noël in her diary, May 1985
1985
“Jakson MacLow and Anne Tardos closes their reading of phonetic mantras and quadrilingual reminiscenses of childhood by inviting the audience onstage for a buffet”
- Henry Martin, “Festival of Fantastics” in “EAR Magazin of New York, p. 16, New York, November/December, 1985.
January 7th, 2008
The other piece I did was easier to realize, the world premiere of my Kinder/Børn/Children. People lined up on stage facing the audience, each inflating their inflatable life vests. Some vests opened, others didn’t—it was simple and beautiful. We finished my segment with a banquet on stage, to which the audience was invited. Everyone seemed very hungry that day, and we were all on stage, enjoying the banquet of great Danish cheeses, breads, fruit and wine.
- Anne Tardos, Letter to Eric, January 2008
October 7th, 2008
I did a piece that involved two slide projectors, which we could not synchronize. I remember that while the performance was going, and the images clearly did not correspond to the text, Bob Watts was heard mumbling “this shouldn’t be happening.” Now Bob is dead too, and, thanks to the out-of-synch slide projectors, he had the opportunity to express his compassion for me, which I cherish and appreciate more than I would have a perfectly coordinated set of projectors.
- Anne Tardos, Letter to Eric, January 2008