The CocoRosie Project

CocoRosie’s seemingly ultra-artificial paradises are packed to the brim with cultural, mythological, religious, and societal props. Eluding all dictates of a system-obedient mode of thought, experience, and feeling, the two sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady concoct a magnificent counter universe for us from the remnants of a culture that has already given itself the deathblow.

Here and there objects pop up, reminiscent of the prototypical, physical and psychic furnishings of a room from female teenagers: the last unicorns change sexes in the waiting room to Noah’s genome bank and swap material in the meantime; fairies and strange chimera float through colourful pastel landscapes until they land in the dystopian darkrooms of a fantasy epic; religions and myths of a white, heterosexual, male-dominated society are deconstructed once again – their fragments are splendid decoration for this odd, abysmal and obsessive new world. CocoRosie slam a sledgehammer on the anyway already shattered real world and forge from the fragments an artificial paradise that is everything else than a bourgeoisie, reactionary sham world borne from morphine-impregnated redundancy à la Barbie and Ken. Here, we fly forward, not in the linear Occidental sense but in the sense of utopia. The paradise does not promise us the boring-innocent life we imagine before fruit was eaten from the tree of knowledge. Nay, on the contrary! Through radically different thinking and feeling, sensing and acting, it promises an exit out of a societal and cultural situation in which it fights it with its own weapons.
 
In keeping with the art project CocoRosie, the sisters tend a garden of abysmal wonders for the festival. From all imaginable found materials, they create a synergetic force field, which may well have some of its roots in the quirky anarchy of freak folk but generates a web of references through the extreme fusion of genres and media that grows far beyond its pop cultural origins.
 
While Sierra Casady breathes new life into the opera and musical genres with “Soul Life”, slips into the New Age guise, and reveals that hippyesque ideas infused with fresh content needn’t degenerate into accessories in the worldwide revolution boutiques, Bianca – also no stranger to fine arts – delves into the realm of dance-performance. “Nightshift” is plotted as an extremely dark fairytale – the background of the story, in which a neglected child mutates into a “harmless monster” over the course of time, reads, however, like a homage to the losers of a society, to the outsiders and the ostracized. This “monster” then wanders into another production that borrows its name, where CocoRosie make live a musical score for film and video material submitted from their fans: a collective monument to a new way of thinking that will virally infest the souls and minds of society. And this thinking has already arrived as one can gather from the list of their guests who either create stand-alone paradises (Ariel Pink or Atlas Sound) or celebrate unexpected artistic weddings (Laurie Anderson & Light Asylum, Scout Niblett & Lapdog of Satan, Valgeir Sigurdsson & Rhys Chatham, or Sissy Nobby & Antony and Nomi Ruiz & Busdriver). The radically queer approach of the last-mentioned two pairings is then again furthered in the summum opus by CocoRosie themselves, their new concert show with new and old material alike. “The Eighth Night” takes the demystification and reappropriation of religious symbols and the theatrical game with the exchangeability of gender roles to a new height. If God created the world in seven days, then we contrarians can ask the legitimate question: What precisely did he do on the eighth day, let alone on the eighth night? And why HE anyway? “God has a voice, SHE speaks through me,” once said our “Rainbow Warriors” Bianca & Sierra. Let us drop all weapons of our culture, reap our innocence anew, break with the taboos and structures, and follow our troopers into their paradise, into a “bold new world”!

CocoRosie Projects:

28/04 20.00-21.00
Harmless Monster
 
28/04 18.00-19.00
29/04 17.00-18.00
Soul Life 

29/04 21.00-22.00
30/04 20.00-21.00
Nightshift 

30/04 22.00-23.00 & 00.00-01.00
Die Achte Nacht 

The CocoRosie Project is a coproduction of donaufestival, CocoRosie, Kampnagel Hamburg and Konzertbüro Hugsam.

Curated by CocoRosie:

28/04 Opening 16.00-20.00
29/04-30/04 11.00-20.00
WE2 11.00-20.00
Jean Marc Ruellan
 
28/04 22.00-23.00
Rhys Chatham with Valgeir Sigurdsson 

28/04 00.00-01.00
Rajasthan Roots with Diane Cluck

28/04 21.00-22.00
Laurie Anderson with Light Asylum

28/04 23.00-00.00
Sissy Nobby special guest Antony

30/04 19.00-20.00
Scout Niblett with Lapdog of Satan 

30/04 23.00-00.00
Busdriver with Nomi Ruiz