Robert Filliou

1973

Mixed Media, 30.3 × 21.5 cm.
Materials: print on paper, on rusty music stand

Collection: Collection Andersch, Neuss.

Excerpt of the conversation between Robert Filliou (RF) and Irmeline Lebeer (IL), Flayosc, France, August 1976.

RF: ‘Telepathic Music.’ I have all the texts. The first one, Telepathic Music No.1, I sent to friends in Canada, but Telepathic Music No.2 is the same. It’s part of Research on the Eternal Network. We have the text, in German and English, from 1973. Someone translated it. It was on music stands, 50 music stands in a garden, so you could read from both sides. It was already bilingual.

IL: Is this a work or a performance?

RF: It’s a work. It’s in the framework of Research on the Eternal Network, which we already spoke about. It’s the thing from ADA in Berlin [in 1973]. There I did Telepathic Music No.2, dedicated to my Canadian friends. And I should say that Charlotte Moorman also did it for her festival, in 1975. She rented a whole sports field. You know they have electronic displays for the scores. She asked me for a text, and I sent her this, in English: ‘Concentrating silently, sending waves of greeting, whether luck, men luck, women luck, to any or all the members of the Eternal Network.’ And it happened. People who saw it have told me it was very, very good. It was a big thing. Suddenly letters appeared in light. There were probably thousands of people, and this was on the signboards.