Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten, dass ich so traurig bin.
"I don't know what it means that I feel so sad" is a site-specific multimedia installation.
Through a composed soundscape, the composer creates a musical dialogue between the disturbing recordings of various 911 emergency calls and the art song "Lorelei," composed by Clara Schumann, in order to address the theme of gender inequality in our society across the centuries. Schumann's interpretation of Lorelei (text by Heinrich Heine) generates a "violent" and "nightmarish" atmosphere at the beginning of the piece. The vivid piano accompaniment (repetitive triplet figures) creates an anxious, nervous feeling that merges with Duoni's newly composed material and intensifies the perception of an increasingly cruel and terrifying reality for women in our society. Yet the figure of the Lorelei herself—as a so-called femme fatale-invites reflection on how female characters are portrayed in literature. The story of the Lorelei, the story of Clara Schumann as a woman and a composer, and the stories of so many women-Duoni weaves all of these together to convey the complexity of the subject.
This is also the main reason why Duoni plans to reinterpret Clara Schumann's work (written in 1843) in 2024. Much has changed over the past years, yet for many, this change still appears to be progressing too slowly. With this composition, Duoni not only seeks to raise awareness of gender-based violence and injustice toward women, but also to explore how contemporary works can connect music from different genres and eras—in this case: pop, Romanticism, contemporary music, and Foley sound effects.
FUTURE PRESERVES
LIGHT INSTALLATION
„“Future Preserves” transforms the echo of a once lively restaurant into a speculative museum of climate memory. Through site-specific, sound-based light installations in a former restaurant (Fröndenberg), a space that once stood for abundance, pleasure, and the immediacy of food, Duoni seeks to contrast past notions of excess with a possible future state of scarcity.
Everyday foods preserved in jars are staged under carefully directed light like rare relics. What emerges is a quiet archive of the ordinary—an archive that points toward a future in which the familiar and taken-for-granted may have disappeared from daily life. With “Future Preserves,” she invites viewers to reflect on the fragility of our food systems, the impacts of climate change, and the impermanence of resources we often consider self-evident.“
SHAPE!
This audiovisual WORK explores the relationship between the human voice, gender roles, and power. Through a composed collage and the inclusion of vocal coaching, the work raises the question of how a woman's voice can be trained in order to attain positions of power, act successfully within them, and build trust in society. The coaches are visualized through animated heads with synchronized mouths. Through its meditative atmosphere and subtly unsettling images and sounds, the artists aim to create a platform for reflection and discussion on the complex themes of gender, voice, and power.
VIDEO ARTIST: VERONIKA SIMMERING
COMPOSER: DUONI LIU