DER MONDÄNE TIGER
Literary compositions based on stories by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Leonora Carrington, Xavier Forneret and Charles Cros
Idea,
concept, voice/performance: Andrea Splisgar
Sound collage and composition: Lord Litter
Inspired by stories from André Breton's legendary Anthology of Black Humor, compiled in 1939 and published in 1947, the artist Andrea Splisgar and the musician Lord Litter under the pseudonym Der Mondäne Tiger produces audio pieces that allow audiences to experience sensually Breton's intense preoccupation with the juxtaposition of "wakefulness" and "dreaming". Swans only sing at the moment of death, according to a short story in the anthology by Villiers de L'Isle-Adams, considered one of the most important French writers of Symbolism. The character of the swan-killing Doctor Bonhomet, who can only bear the disappointments of life with the help of these dying creatures' songs, forms the leitmotif for the subtle balance between reading and musical composition that Der Mondäne Tiger strikes.
The desire for radical elegance and fulfillment requires extreme measures. Whether, as in Leonora Carrington's dream story "The Debutante" (1939), a hyena disguised as a girl attends a debutantes' ball, or, as in Xavier Forneret's 1870 riddle, "A Shameful Pauper", the title character devours his own hand, the common motif is a terrible, aesthetic metamorphosis. It is in this spirit that the lyrical and musical experiments by Der Mondäne Tiger break with clearly defined categories. Wagner meets Buñuel, Björk and Kubrick: while the duo integrates works by Holst and Mahler, as well as tango music, the sound of beating wings, or soundtracks by Ennio Morricone into its sound collages and compositions, Andrea Splisgar's precisely-dosed narration becomes an additional musical instrument. The result of this collaboration is a hypnotic aural experience that lets loose a flood of internal images, and which transports the literary traditions of Surrealism into the modern day in an idiosyncratic, amusing and sophisticated manner.