Earlier this week Haroon Mirza performed The Last Tape, a multimedia nod to Ian Curtis’s unrealized song about William S. Burroughs’ “Johnny 23.” The performance, presented by the Atelier Calder following Mirza’s residency there in Summer 2013, is a combination of spoken word and sculptural installation that investigates the boundary between music, noise, and sound. It was performed by cult musician Richard “Kid” Strange on a stage borrowed from Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” at the Brownstone Foundation in Paris on Tuesday.
Mirza is known for his layering of multiple mediums in his installations. He refers to them as “self-governing” systems as each element is responsive to the others within the site-specific installation. The Last Tape weaves together several different media to create a single composition, aurally displaying music’s capacity to express the complexities of the human experience.
2010 / 2013The Last Tape was previously performed at Chisenhale Gallery in London in 2011 but wasadapted for the Brownstone Foundation with additional elements.
