Published
Requiem for the Snake of Maidan
“Requiem for the Snake of Maidan” is the byproduct of a film for German TV that was made about Geerken while he was living in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the 1970s. Many years later, the artists recalled the work’s becoming: «In order to find a venue for my music that is typical for Afghanistan, it was agreed that my “percussion environment”, a tubular cube of 2x2x2 meters including the associated instruments, would be transported on a barren, stony ridge in the Hindukusch mountains… While a couple of men dragged the frame pipes and the instruments up the hill, I decided to carry my large wuhan gong (100cm diameter) up the mountain, in a kind of ritual. Michael Ranta sent me this gong from wuhan/china to Kabul. With slow and careful steps, carrying the heavy gong like an umbrella on my head, I walked over the difficult rocky terrain without a path up. Suddenly a snake about two meters long came out of the rocks towards me and hissed aggressively at me. I could only take the gong off my head and put it like a shield in front of my legs. As I later discovered, it was a very venomous snake! Since I couldn’t go on or back without her attacking me, I had to bring myself to kill the beautiful animal. I managed to smash her skull with a rock that I threw at her while standing behind my gong. Finally I hung the lifeless body around my neck, put the gong back on my head and continued my way up, with a pounding heart. When the percussion environment was set up, I hung the dead snake between my instruments and spontaneously decided to name my solo performance “Requiem for the Snake of Maidan”.»