Valerio Rocco Orlando

Niendorf (The Damaged Piano) (2008)

Niendorf is a 1920s piano: forgotten, damaged, and capable of ancestral sounds. When English composer Michael Nyman discovered it for the first time in a Berlin restorer’s workshop, he was mesmerized. This work stems from the story of his experience, which becomes a metaphor to explore the relationship between the artist and the medium.

This two-channel video installation shows on one hand the musician’s point of view in order to seek the magic of his discovery exactly where it took place, and on the other the live recordings of Nyman’s concert—a close-up shot in black and white 35 millimeter—documenting the only performance in which the piano was played in public.