France Concert Tour Report March 2002

The Stringraphy Ensemble participated in two festivals that were held in France between March 22nd and 31st, 2002.
The first was the VIA FESTIVAL, held in MAUBEUGE (Northern France), and the second was the EXIT FESTIVAL in CRETEIL (a suburb of Paris).

March 22-23, 2002: VIA FESTIVAL in MAUBEUGE (Northern France)

Venue: Centre Cultural Transfrontalier Le Manege

Number in Attendance	1st Concert	2nd Concert	3rd Concert	4th Concert
Number in Attendance	15:00-15:30	18:00-18:30	20:00-20:30	21:30-22:00
on the 22^nd	70	50	120	130
on the 23^rd	50	50	120	130

VIA FESTIVAL

The VIA FESTIVAL is an art festival with a fourteen-year history, which has mainly exhibited installations in the field of media art. In addition to the visual art exhibitions, it also has a program that consists of three to four thirty-minute performances called the "Miniature", which can be viewed while visitors walk around the Centre. The Stringraphy Ensemble was held as one of the "Miniatures".

For this Festival, we mainly played our original music pieces, which involved physical expressions that we produced just for this tour. (Our program consisted of "The Shadow of Wings", "Stringraphy Tapestry", "Sounding","Fuhga", "Tenko", "Canopy Dance", and "Ju Te Vuex" by Eric Satie.)

The space for our concerts was used as the parquet. To accomplish this, we used a total of two hundred strings in order to install six sets of the Stringraphy. In addition, we created an installation work so that the instrument could encircle the audience.
The concerts were attended by a wide age group, from children in elementary school to senior citizens.

March 28-31, 2002: EXIT FESTIVAL in CRETEIL (A Suburb of Paris)

Venue: Dessous de scene in la Maison des Arts Creteil Andre Malraux de Creteil

Number in Attendance

1st Concert

2nd Concert

3rd Concert

4th Concert

19:00-19:30

20:45-21:15

21:45-22:15

23:00-23:30

on the 28^th

100

90

120

30

on the 29^th

156

198

113

78

on the 30^th
185

178

156

170

on the 31^st
180

50

-

-

The EXIT FESTIVAL, which takes place at an art center in the suburbs of Paris, presents the same art exhibitions and performances as the VIA FESTIVAL in Maubeuge. We partially changed the contents of our program in Maubeuge so that we could make full use of this space, which was made up of many labyrinthine pillars. Our program consisted of "The Shadow of Wings" , "Stringraphy Tapestry" , "Sounding","Etenraku", "Tenko" ,"Solitude in June", and "Ju Te Vuex" by Eric Satie.)

The strings that were stretched throughout the space created a mystical atmosphere, while also serving a ceremonial function. The audience was able to experience the feeling of being surrounded by sounds as performers appeared and disappeared from nowhere. We were surprised to find that music lovers showed up at our eleven-o'clock concerts regardless of the fact that some were held during the Easter holidays.