Allora & Calzadilla: Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on “Ode to Joy” for a Prepared Piano

The artist duo Allora & Calzadilla will show the work “Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on ‘Ode to Joy’ for a Prepared Piano” from 30 September to 30 October 2022 in the upper hall of the New National Gallery. The 30-minute performance will take place eight times a day, on the hour from 10am to 6pm. In a mixture of sculpture and performance, the artists have chiselled a hole in the middle of an early 20th century Bechstein piano, creating a gap in which the performer stands and plays the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, usually referred to as the “Ode to Joy”. During the performance, a pianist bends over the piano keyboard and plays upside down and backwards as she*he moves the instrument through the Mies van der Rohe hall.

Image above: Allora & Clazadilla Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations On “Ode To Joy” For A Prepared Piano 2008 Präpariertes Bechstein Klavier, Pianist*in (hier: Amir Khosrowpour) Installationsansicht: Gladstone Gallery © Allora & Calzadilla Courtesy the artists and Gladstone Gallery Foto: David Regen