Bach / Mendeleïev

Invited to take part in the Bach Symposium 2000 in Zakopane, Poland, Cod.Act attempts to break out of the conventional mould of commemoration and proposes the concept of a rendering of Bach in the shape of active elements, not in the arts but in the environment and in matter.

These elements belong to a harmonic sum, in the same way that natural elements belong to the harmonic sum of the periodic table that Mendeleiev set up and like them, can be a fragment of matter, of the environment.

André Décosterd and Michel Décosterd created machines which capture, process and propel sounds and light as raw material. The performance, almost a laboratory activity, brings five strictly empirical tests into play, creating five optical and musical tableaux.