Meakusma Festival
Graphic Varispeed (2014–201_)
(Martin Tétreault & dieb13 - CAN/AUT)

13 vinyl records, 13 glue casts, text
Four videos (colour, sound)
Four flat-panel displays, four headsets

Graphic Varispeed, a work in progress, is a collaboration between Martin Tétreault, a Montreal artist and turntablist, and Dieter Kovačič, alias dieb13, a Vienna-based artist and turntablist who cuts his own vinyl discs. The project began in March 2014 when Tétreault and Kovačič were on tour together in Europe. Dieter gave Martin a record that he had cut himself. Martin made a cast of the vinyl disc using wood glue, following a technique that he had developed. The next day, once it had dried, he gave it to Dieter. When he got back to Vienna, Dieter made a copy of the glue cast, and mailed the resulting vinyl disc to Martin. Martin then made another cast. . . and so on. The two artists have been exchanging vinyl discs and glue casts by mail ever since. As of September 1st, 2019, 13 iterations exist. The pair have yet to set a limit on how many will be made, nor on how long the exchange by mail will last. Perhaps they never will.

The work is now accompanied by four videos, allowing the visitor to see and hear four performances.

– The first was given by Martin Tétreault on April 18, 2017, at the premiere showing of the installation, as part of the exhibition Où sont les sons ? / Where are sounds? held at CENTRALE for contemporary art, Brussels, from April 20 to September 10, 2017; curator: Nicole Gingras.
– The second was given by dieb13 on August 23, 2018, at the second showing of the installation, as part of the exhibition trust*us: Die Kunst der Freundschaft held at Galerie 5020, Salzburg, from August 23 to October 6, 2018; curators: Karin Fisslthaler, Thomas Hörl, Peter Kozek and Lydia Nsiah.
– The third was given by Martin Tétreault on January 24, 2019, at a showing of the installation at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, as part of Persisiting Realities exhibition for the 20th edition of CTM, January 25 to March 17, 2019; co-curators: Nicole Gingras and Eric Mattson.
– The fourth was given by dieb13 on September 6, 2019, at a showing of the installation at IKOB Art Contemporary Museum, Eupen, as part of Meakusma festival.

Text by Nicole Gingras