Catalogue > At random

This project is a sound and visual performance that has its origins in the ubiquitous digital tones of the cell phones comprising the soundtrack of our contemporary life. These sound waves provide the raw material for this piece, which recreates an urban space saturated with an ever-changing cacophony of electronic alerts. In order to add an appropriately surreal dimension to this soundscape, the space is filled with theatrical smoke that creates an atmosphere, which, like the public, is trapped between the physical and digital realities. In this performance Fatos Qerimaj, a contemporary musician, plays the clarinet in a jazz-like dialogue with the ring tones, turning the mobile phones into avatar-instrumentalists of an unpredictable cyborg ensemble. If jazz once responded spontaneously to the rhythms and beat of life, in this piece it still does, with the rhythm of our lives now being the sounds of our digital devices.

Helidon is a contemporary artist, who was born in Albania and currently lives in NYC. He studied art at the Academies of Fine Arts of Tirana and Naples as well as Northwestern University. Over the course of his career he has worked in a variety of mediums, and has shown his work internationally, in venues such as Venice Biennale, Manifesta, Tirana Biennale, Festival of Ideas of the New Museum, and Ludwig Museum. He has taught in several universities and lectured about his work at Harvard, Columbia and Parsons. His work has been reviewed in Artforum and Flash Art. Qerimaj is a distinguished contemporary Albanian musician who plays the clarinet, composes, conducts, and serves as an artistic director and university professor. Born in Albania, he graduated in clarinet and composition from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, where he now works as a professor. He has performed in many concerts throughout Europe and beyond. He is the artistic director of a few festivals in Tirana, such as the Jazz Festival, Clarimpro Festival, and the Magic Flute Festival. Among other prizes, in 2005 he was awarded the Kult Prize for the best Albanian musician of the year.