Healing Akko
Ton-sur-ton Peter
This article was featured in online lifestyle magazine NSMBL
Prof. Russolo
It’s an anniversary. Professor Russolo enters the Stedelijk Museum for the 52nd time this year. Every week, on tuesday mornings, he is greeted by expecting smiles on the faces of museum attendants. He will walk around the museum of modern art in his all black-and-white outfit, topping it off with a black hat. He catches a lot of attention and has a committed fan base consisting of the regular Stedelijk visitors. Sometimes fans will hand him over black-and-white gifts, like the self-made scarf an old lady gave him the other day. Especially the groups of older ladies on tours are charmed. Those who don’t know him yet, will come up to him, excusing themselves for being so nosy and then asking who exactly he is and what he does.
Professor Russolo is conceptual artist. As a former composer, he focusses especially on sounds, but in the silent museum he has to be inventive. Using his surroundings, he will make instant bodily art. He will run, crawl, walk in slow motion, press his nose against a table, freeze his arm in horizontal line with a painting. All of this to wake up the visitor. His acts are never overdone, and their subtlety surprise people nonetheless. The visitors will watch, walk along and turn their glance back again. Then a frown or smile will appear. And so his goal is achieved, showing that assumptions about everyday reality can be shaken up. Why live as a blank, invisible human being when you can run, freeze, shake and press your nose against random objects in the street? Professor Russolo is there to inspire people to move freely, create and play.
