The Song of a Soldier on Watch

Between September 25 and October 15 2011 Branko Miliskovic was invited for a residency at Bains Connective. He worked on his new live performance entitled “The Song of a Soldier on Watch” and was inspired by one of the most controversial but extremily popular German love songs, “Lili Marlene”. The song was written in 1915 by the German soldier Hans Leip from Hamburg. It was set to music by Norbert Schultze in 1938 and recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939. During the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia, Radio Belgrade became Soldatensender Belgrad in 1941, and broadcasted programs to entertain the German armed forces. This song was played frequently and was also very popular in other Mediterranean and European countries, on both sides of the frontline. “Lili Marlene’’ was presumably one of the first songs of which one thought it could lead to an individual and collective resistance of the soldiers on the front.

Miliskovic was born in Belgrade and lives in Hamburg. In this performance he inhabits the body of both Lili Marlene and of the soldier/writer, aiming to achieve an extraordinary fusion of both genders and to create an androgenic type, or perhaps even more likely the WWIII-version of Lili Marlene.

This work is in life time progression.
Concept & performance: Branko Miliskovic
Duration : 3 hours 2o min
October 15, 2011 , Brussels / Belgium
Song: “Lili Marlene”( Lili Marleen), written by Hans Leip (1915), set to the music by Norbert Schultze (1938), firstly recorded by Lale Andersen (1938), instrumental version composed by Anton Karas.
Thanks to Radio Belgrade and Dejan Ivanovic for rare audio materials.
Dianne Weller for the voice rehearsal.
Special thanks to Dominika Sobolewska and Bains Connective crew.

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