4'33 (1982/2011) super 8 mm film transferred to dvd, 04:42 min.

My father’s Brother, when he was sexteen, following a family visit ti Vienna, decided not to return to Hungary, so he became what was called at the time a «dissident». He recorded the Rolling Stones concert in Vienna in 1982. When I first watched it, I was amazed to have the recording of a concert without sound. It may, of course, seem to be quite pointless and nonsensical, but it included the desire for freedom that rock’n’roll and the Rolling Stones meant for my uncle and for so many people.

This film was shot whit a camera that was unable to record the most important élément : the music. The rock’n‘roll concert is seen in an entierly different light as a sillent film. The whole évent loses its sensé without sound : the movements of the lead vocalist, Mick Jagger, seem to be no more than awkward jerks, and the audience’s head-banging appaers to be a bizarre and unintelligible series of movements.

Cage’s piece, 4’33’’ is silence itself, more precisely, it is composed of no other sound but the noises of the envirnment (the audience’s and fidgeting, or noises emitted by the concert hall’s machinery, etc.) that can be heard during the performance. In the archival film footage utilised by Esterházy, however, instead of the Rolling Stones music and the noises or voices of the audience, we can hear only the subdued rattle of the old film projector.

(Katalin Székely, curator)

The Freedom of Sound
exhibition view, Ludwig Museum: The Freedom of Sound

The Freedom of Sound
exhibition view, Ludwig Museum: The Freedom of Sound