solo for prepared chess written for Grandmaster Vera Nebolsina.
concept, composition & direction : Marianthi Papalexandri Alexandri
performer : Vera Nebolsina

chesSound solo for prepared chess was developed in collaboration with Nebolsina and Hirakawa.The work creates an interactive dialogue between chess, sound and image. Preparation introduces structural and functional possibilities by; defining musical sections; affecting the form of playing; alerting the habitual perceptions of the performer as well as determining speed, dynamics and other musical parameters. Particularly the work examines the same slow repetitive physical gestures under different conditions. By questioning the function of gestures and sounds chesSound invites both the performer and listener into an evocative private sound-visual world as well as to new ways of engaging to chess and music, acoustically and visually. This work can be presented both in the form of a video work and live performance.
The video operates both as a self-reflexive and compositional tool that facilitates extending the physical limits and possibilities of the performing body. It provides the possibility of exposing the detailed movements and gestures of making the sounds that come along with the detailed movements audible and traceable.
Kindly supported by Akademie Schloss Solitude
First performance Akademie Schloss Solitude: Drawing pieces: an encounter between art and chess

video: Youki Hirakawa
Year: 2014