Jorge Macchi
I’m very bad at remembering names.
When the residency at Civitella was coming to an end, Mark Dresser, the musician of the group, brought to the library ten or twelve CD’s of his former work. I was amazed when I realized that I had one of them at home, the sound track for the silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I felt embarrassed for not remembering his name, but in fact I recognized the cover immediately. He said to me that maybe I was one of the twenty people that had this CD. I think he was exaggerating. Anyway, what a coincidence, considering that I had been working with him during that month!
After I saw Mark’s presentation at Civitella, I gave him three “scores” with no instructions about how to play them. They were paper-cuts from an Italian newspaper, with remains of words from three headlines crossed by the five lines of a stave. I knew he would know what to do with them. Everything ended up in an installation of the scores on the walls of my studio and a beautiful performance by Mark, reading them and playing his contrabass.
I wonder if the Caligari CD just came to confirm our artistic/familial relationship?
This is not the only thing I was working on during the residency, and Mark was not the only artist there, but I think this story illustrates what our intense month at Civitella Ranieri was like.