Watch: POR at the opening of Sekante at Q-O2 (Brussels) May 2008 - MP4 Movie 17'29''


Several medium-sized elements of polystyrene become installed in various places of the concert room; ideally also in some adjoining rooms if they are openly connected to the concert room. Long pieces of string attached to these elements become taut, gathered and fixed in a certain point of the room. In front of this point, inbetween the taut strings stands the performer, who produces a variety of hiss and other sounds by rubbing, scratching and scraping the strings with alternating pressure, tempo and rhythm. In certain moments these strings become also played by modified electric propellers producing layers of constant drones. Additionally to the elements fixed on the walls, there are also one or more movable blocks spread out on the floor, loose pieces of string attached to them.
All these sounds become amplified by the polystyrene blocks, which are utilized as resonators. Dynamics, volume, intensity and rhythm can be varied by altering the pressure and tempo exerted to the strings. Analogously to a multi-channel diffusion of electro-acoustic music through mutiple speakers spread out in the room, the sounds in POR, which are of an almost electronic nature, become projected into the room by the polystyrene resonators without using any additional amplification.

So far POR has been installed and performed by Burkhard Beins in Berlin (UA 2000, 2003, 2006), London, Milano (both 2005), Palermo (2006), Brussels (2008) and at the Densités Festival/France (2009).

An entirely installational version of POR, entitled SEKANTE, has seen it's first presentation in November 2007 at Berlin's Ausland. In the beginning of May 2008 a second presentation took place at QO-2 Werkhuis in Brussels including a performance of POR as part of the vernissage.