JOHANNA BILLING (EDITION I)
You Don’t Love Me Yet (2002-2005)
'You Don't Love Me Yet' is a travelling project for which the Swedish artist Johanna Billing invites local bands and musicians for each giving their own interpretation of the eighties song by Roky Erickson of the same title. After the premiere on October 4, 2002 in 'Index' in Stockholm, this project went on tour for three years through various cities and places like San Sebastian, Helsinki, London, Chicago and Timisoara (Roemenia).
On the last day of If I Can't Dance... in Leiden, November 27, the 'You Don’t Love Me Yet'-project had its final presentation in the Veenfabriek. With more than twenty participating bands, it became a 'grand finale'.
In collaboration with Johanna Billing, If I Can't Dance... presented in Utrecht, Den Bosch and Leiden, a wide variety of bands, individuals, both musicians and artists, that performed the song. The goal of Billing’s project was not so much to organize the perfect pop concert; rather she was searching for the right atmosphere and scenario for this ambiguous 'repetition-performance'. It became a mix between an intimate gig, a pleasant experience, a concentrated listening situation, a personal and individual performance for each participant. It playfully created its own transitory community through the repetition of the same poignant song that Billing chose for bringing us all together.
Roky Erickson is perhaps a classic representative of an almost legendary up and down rock-n-roll life. As a singer, songwriter and guitar player in The 13th Floor Elevators he wrote among others the hit 'You're Gonna Miss me' and influenced many bands with his 'psychedelic' rock style. Johanna Billing chose for one of his lesser known song, because it connoted an interesting state of longing which she wished to explore with the musicians. The 'You Don’t Love Me Yet'-concert in Leiden will close with the presentation of Billing's own interpretation of the song, a video piece in a music studio played and sang by diverse Swedish musicians whom came together for the occasion.
'You Don’t Love Me Yet' was initiated by Index (the Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation) and NIFCA (Nordic Institution for Contemporary Art) in 2002. Original song by Roky Erickson, published by R. Erickson in 1984.
