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DORNBRACHT

DD: Yet you composed bathroom music for the armature-production firm of Dornbracht. In what way did the music and bathroom facilities relate to one another, and what did the firm do with the music afterwards?

RL: A long time ago, Dornbracht commissioned the Cologne-based advertising agency Meiré and Meiré to handle its advertising campaign. For many years, they did the job obediently and with charm, until they finally grew tired of showing beautiful, slim women in the act of turning water faucets. As a result, they suggested to Mr. Dornbracht an art project that would invite artists to respond to the theme of water and bathing. There were different teams. Rosemarie Trockel participated in the video team; Raf Simons, a fashion designer, designed a collection, and we were invited to compose music that dealt with the theme. We investigated the acoustic conditions in bathrooms and asked our friends what they did inside of them. Then we developed music from these findings – but music without a connection to a real bathroom.

 

There’s no event extracted from an existing bathroom.

DD: But when I hear it, does it still leave me with a feeling of wetness?

RL: Yes, you’re drenched! No, it’s more like quicksilver or something similar.

DD: I saw Dornbracht’s company brochure, no longer a brochure in the traditional sense. On the cover, you only see a form resembling a piece of armature, and all the artists standing rather dominant in the foreground.

RL: I know. That’s what was so great about the project. We even met Mr. Dornbracht. He told us: Do whatever you like, I won’t interfere, and I don’t need to see anything beforehand. Nor did Meiré and Meiré want to know anything. No one ever asked, How far along are you? Or while we worked: What on earth is that? That was good for the work, which Dornbracht paid for without any guarantee of its value. In the end, a good many freakish things were created. I already saw Raf Simon’s fashion collection at a show in Paris: jet-black bath sheets covered with small, sown-on Heavy Metal details and studs, along with a jet-black sound system playing Heavy Metal music, and

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