Domani, ein Nachlass (1994/2004/2006)
Drawing from "Domani"
Using the form of a "bequest", Klaus Damm has created a genre for his portrait of the artist figure "Domani", which enables him to incorporate a wide variety of expressive forms (verse, song, fantasy, fairy tale, essay) into a single dramaturgy by arranging fictitious sources.
By juxtaposing various stylistic devices and layers of speech – modelled on the montage techniques of Gustav Mahler – the author has developed a virtually symphonic large-scale form. Familiar speech gestures are modulated to become alien content, speech fragments break up, and meta-context is produced from incoherency.
Klaus Damm lays down the base lines for the character of Domani from the outset with a motto and self-portrait, and this is further developed in the introductory poems. The subsequent "3 songs" reflect a retrograde progression of the poems. The sweeping fantasy "Gehirnsprengung" ("Brain Explosion") casts light on the absurd passages of the first part ("Ares", "Aphorisms"), while the fairy tale bundles the more lyrical elements back together in a self-contained form. Finally, the "publisher's epilogue" refers back to the introductory quotation by Alexander Herbrich.
Realization
Text, music, and graphics are based on work by Klaus Damm from 1971-74, which he compiled in 1994 to form a fictional bequest.
The second redesigned edition was published in 2004 in Klaus Damm's "edition xsynart". It was presented at the 2004 Frankfurt Book Fair with ISBN number 3-980 9422-2-8. The author produced a third revised edition in 2006.
Domani - double page from the 2006 edition
Septembermonde
–
poetic graphics (1989/2004)
"Mut" from Septembermonde
Klaus Damm created a variable multi-media form for his "Septembermonde" (1989) cycle of poems. With written words as graphical raw materials, he designed a sequential image composition which "visually sets the text to music". For parts of the cycle – "Schritte" ("Steps") and "Grenze" ("Border") – Klaus Damm composed an electronic musical interpretation. He in turn adapted this for dance in collaboration with Cologne-based dancer Isabel Bartenstein.
The realizations in various media are stand-alone pieces and at the same time complement one another. The book form thus allows observers to feel their way into texts and graphics in their own time. In contrast, the form of the silent video installation structures the observation time for images as a composed dimension. Similarly, the music on the one hand stands alone – as a two-movement electronic composition. In addition, it is interpreted reciprocally with the appropriate parts of the synchronized video installation.
In 2004, the new edition was recomposed as part of the edition xsynart. Graphics are left in the electronic graphics language used at the time they were developed in 1989, the technical possibilities of which have impacted on design concepts through material reduction, with four-color palettes per image, a total spectrum of only 16 colors and 320 x 200 pixels.
Septembermonde – from the poetic graphics for "Mut"
Realization
The first edition was entered by Klaus Damm for the Bonn Art Award in 1990 and exhibited there. He created the music for the poems "Schritte" ("Steps") and "Grenze" ("Border") in his algorithmic composition language "SG2" in 1989.
In 2004, a second redesigned edition was published in his "edition xsynart". It was presented at the 2004 Frankfurt Book Fair with ISBN number 3-9809422-0-1.
English translation of the German original. Deutsche Fassung
