A Performance in the comfort zone
Haptophobic boxers and a cuddly decayed tooth. Songs written in Oxford and costumes, videos and soundscapes developed in Munich – the beißpony collective is buzzing with ideas. Their debut album Brush Your Teeth (Chicks On Speed Records) features a singing sewing machine as well as the clacking of a typewriter. Piano and vocals meet toy orchestra sound collages and lo-fi drums that invite the listener to a counter dance.
The music press has been calling the album »a case for feminist emancipation – another reference, clever cover or new perspective lurking around every corner« (Bayerischer Rundfunk). The Süddeutsche Zeitung is equally impessed: »Critical perspectives are placed inside the listeners’ minds with pitch-perfect aim.« Laura and Stephanie are not afraid to tackle discomfort.
They are going to lodge themselves in the midst of the room installation to seek out, to explore, to doze, to snooze and turn it into a concert walk-in clinic. Dressed in deconstructed scrubs, the duo will make music with the help of piano, drums and all manner of textile appliances. The sewing machine will sit enthroned atop the dissection table. The musical performance will be accompanied by the creation of textile prosthesis, designed to entice the audience members to leave their comfort zones – in a humorous fashion. Their reservations and anxieties will transform into surreal physical objects like »Blinders Deluxe« or »Cold Amplifier dressed in Flu« and thus become tangible. The audience members are invited to try out theses prostheses and follow beißpony beyond the realms of their comfort zones…
IWFF Dortmund | Köln is showing beißpony’s music video Terror of the District.
Stephanie Müller
Stephanie Müller completed a Master’s degree in Communication Sciences at LMU in Munich and studied Art Therapy at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. In 2004, she founded the textile and performance art project »rag*treasure« and in 2006 the experimental music project »beißpony« with Laura Theis.
Films by Stephanie Müller and Klaus Erich Dietl (Selection)
Masochistic Time Machine 2015 | Querschläger 2014 | Splitterwochen 2014 | My Name Is Luka, Call Me Catherine 2012 | Montgomery Leaves His Garden 2011
Laura Theis
Laura Theis holds an M.A. in Theater Studies, German and American literature (LMU Munich). She is based in Oxford and works as a freelance musician and writer.