Tension Orchestra – the acoustisation of skill

At the centre of Lisa Premke's installation in the Kleiner Wasserspeicher Prenzlauer Berg is Tension Orchestra, a performance in which female bodybuilders become resonating bodies for string instruments. Violin, guitar, viola and harp strings are attached to their bodies. While holding classical poses for as long as possible, they tune the strings to specific notes so that musicians can play a specially composed score.

The interplay creates a fragile situation: the athletes strive for maximum body control, the musicians for tonal precision – both pushing the limits of what is possible.
 Maintaining constant tension for the required  duration is virtually impossible. This creates a moment of shared struggle and failure, in which the performers are not performing,
but working.

The performance reveals that both bodybuilders and musicians invest countless hours in perfecting their movements. Nevertheless, these movements are valued differently by society: in
normative ideas, in artistic recognition and in class assignments – especially in relation to female
read bodies.
Tension Orchestra combines two disciplines of functional physicality and, in the moment of exhaustion, questions the value of perfection, usefulness and productivity.