We owe our existence to water. Without it there will be no life, no people, no oceans, no oxygen. At the same time, water is a resource we daily exhaust, pollute, contaminate, with almost no repercussions.
Water is also an information network, carrying the code of natural renewal, the memory of millions of years and of every little life that has passed through this world. Water is life.
“Until the last drop” is an exhibition of the multimedia artist Antoni Rayzhekov, which utilises water as both a medium and a message. Five sound sculptures, activated by dripping water resonate through the space, synchronised in a symbolic swan song. A song for the end.
A dismantled piano is slowly dripping its last sounds, and should you pour water over the trumpet a solo will come out; nearby we hear the sound of a lonely fiddle without a bow. These sound fragments were recorded by Bilyana Vuchkova (violin), Rosen Zahariev (flugelhorn) and Matthias Leboucher (piano), while Antony Rayzhekov has turned dripping water into an invisible music conductor.
“Until the last drop” is a philosophical sound-experience which is vertically structured: the higher you go, the more serious the message. The musical trio of dismantled instruments, shifts to a crescendo of new urban sounds, and, at the top, we hear the drip of words, not music. Words of wisdom and knowledge, words which have transformed human civilisation and culture. The same knowledge which made man the ruler of the world, and at the same time its destroyer.
Each sound sculpture has its distinct voice and yet together they form a quintet, a common soundscape, which speaks of the fragility of living matter, of human discoveries, of inspiration. It “sings” about the responsibility we have toward an environment which has fostered and still sustains our lives. While the message is bleak, the experience is beautiful. The beauty of a burning Rome. Drop by drop, human exploitation drips…
The installation is hooked on IV systems which are carefully refilled each day by the gallery employees. What will happen when there is no-one to refill the system?
Text: Ralitsa Gerasimova
Antoni Rayzhekov (1980) is a Bulgarian media artist based in Austria and Bulgaria.
Graduated from NATFA “Krastyo Sarafov” with BA in performing (2001) and MA in directing (2007). Studied jazz piano and improvisation (2009 – 2013) in Vienna Conservatorium and Information Technology at LearningTree vocation trainings, London. He was an IT consultant (2008-2010) at the United Nations HQ in Vienna and is a co-founder of the Vienna new media label THIS.PLAY (2009-2013), realized multiple international projects in China, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Singapore, Bulgaria etc. Antoni works in the field of visual and sound arts and performance with more than 10 years of experience with international success and is an author of projects such as “QUANTUM PICTURES” (2010), “10VE” (2014), SOMAPHOY (2016), BIOCOIN(2018-2021), THE EVASIVE CHOIR (2021). He is an award-winning audio-visual artist (ContentAward Vienna 2016) and has been a fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude – Germany and Akademie Hallein – Austria, among others.
Limited series of unique author’s vinyl records “To the last drop” – Re:Bonkers, Varna (2022) and +359 Gallery, Sofia (2023) is available at PLUS 359 Gallery.
Each record is a fragment of a long recording of the water drop-driven sound installation of Antoni Raizhekov in collaboration with: Biljana Vuchkova (violin), Rosen Zahariev (flugelhorn), Mathias Lebusche (piano).
