First the three performers bow, then they begin to sing, and not until the end does the clapperboard clap.

In Eau Pernice’s performance series entitled Backward Singing Performance, there are elements that initially identify the piece as a concert, but any recognisability vanishes as soon as the three-part composition is sung backwards. The performances are documented on film and later reversed and presented as inversions of the originals:

The clapperboard claps, the performers sing and finally bow.

The words in the backwards composition are thereby turned frontwards in the videos, and the songs become decipherable – and perhaps recognisable, as a pop song or hymn – in the afterlife of the performance. In the gap between the work’s two temporally staggered layers, Eau Pernice’s backwards compositions hold an enigmatic promise of meaning.

For the CHART Art Fair in Copenhagen 2022, the vocal ensemble ilinx performed three original compositions by artist Eau Pernice: ‘Lamoc nå lamoc’, ‘Sternluz‘ and ‘Be wræ, ne wræ, se wræ’.

The performance was realised with support from Politiken and CHART 2022.