There’s no tristesse like karaoke tristesse. But Brussels-based artist Davis Freeman has invented an artistic upgrade of the genre, adding an art video screening to the classic singalong formula.
Karaoke (ART) invites the audience to sing karaoke classics like “What a Wonderful World”, “Good Vibrations”, “Let’s Dance”, and “Bohemian Rhapsody”, while watching a varied series of videos that contemporary artists like Gary Hill, Johan Grimonprez, Antonia Baehr, Sarah Vanagt, Walter Verdin, Anouck De Clercq, and Fairuz have made especially for the song and the occasion. So joining in the fun becomes compulsive. “I see the project really as two pieces,” says Davis Freeman. “It’s a transitory, one-off contemporary art exhibition of twenty videos that you can only see on this one night. It’s also a classic karaoke evening where the audience can sing hit songs. But this time the singer is in the background and the stars of the evening are the artworks.”
“I admit I’m not really a huge karaoke fan, but I look for projects where I can challenge artists to confront their work and expose it in a different context. This one seems to be resonating quite well, as we’re able to expose a new audience to contemporary art. We had our premiere in Groningen for 250 people who came, to a great extent, just for the karaoke. You could just feel it was the first time many of them had seen video works like these.”
Who chose the songs?
Davis Freeman: I did some research to establish the top 30 classic karaoke songs that people sing worldwide. The artists then chose which song they would make a video for. Our playlist continued to grow and we just added four more artists in January for the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. The songs are nearly all in English right now, but we hope to get more languages involved in the future.
Davis Freeman: okay karaoke
Do the videos relate at all to the songs for which they were made?
Freeman: Completely. Artists mostly chose a specific song because it gave them an idea for the direction of their video. Sometimes the link is a word or a phrase in the chorus. Sometimes the link is softer, for example the film-maker João Salaviza’s link was the year. He made a video for the 1966 Kinks summer hit “Sunny Afternoon”; it features the bridge over the Tagus that the Portuguese dictator Salazar inaugurated that same summer. In the Tim Etchells video for “Paint It Black”, he draws us in by blacking out an array of political images. Phil Collins the video artist chose the song “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins the musician, and took the phrase “I can feel it coming in the air tonight” quite literally. Artists had complete freedom to create whatever they desired, so we ended up with a few pornographic videos. [Laughs]
How will the evening in the Beurskafee work?
Freeman: Well, we actually do the show a bit early, so I think we’ll begin with drinks. Yes, it is a contemporary art exhibition but it’s also karaoke after all! We’ll have three large screens surrounding the audience and we’ll go through each video only once. Everyone can sing in his or her seat, but we need some lead singers to come up and choose a song to activate the artwork. As the host, I guide us through the evening and pass on extra information about the artists themselves. It’s always been a great laugh and you really don’t have to sing if you don’t want to.
DAVIS FREEMAN: KARAOKE (ART) • 26/2, 20.30, gratis/gratuit/free, Beursschouwburg rue A. Ortsstraat 20-28, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-550.03.50, www.beursschouwburg.be
Freeman: Completely. Artists mostly chose a specific song because it gave them an idea for the direction of their video. Sometimes the link is a word or a phrase in the chorus. Sometimes the link is softer, for example the film-maker João Salaviza’s link was the year. He made a video for the 1966 Kinks summer hit “Sunny Afternoon”; it features the bridge over the Tagus that the Portuguese dictator Salazar inaugurated that same summer. In the Tim Etchells video for “Paint It Black”, he draws us in by blacking out an array of political images. Phil Collins the video artist chose the song “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins the musician, and took the phrase “I can feel it coming in the air tonight” quite literally. Artists had complete freedom to create whatever they desired, so we ended up with a few pornographic videos. [Laughs]
How will the evening in the Beurskafee work?
Freeman: Well, we actually do the show a bit early, so I think we’ll begin with drinks. Yes, it is a contemporary art exhibition but it’s also karaoke after all! We’ll have three large screens surrounding the audience and we’ll go through each video only once. Everyone can sing in his or her seat, but we need some lead singers to come up and choose a song to activate the artwork. As the host, I guide us through the evening and pass on extra information about the artists themselves. It’s always been a great laugh and you really don’t have to sing if you don’t want to.
DAVIS FREEMAN: KARAOKE (ART) • 26/2, 20.30, gratis/gratuit/free, Beursschouwburg rue A. Ortsstraat 20-28, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-550.03.50, www.beursschouwburg.be
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