RÄISÄNEN
Tomi
Slow Violence
(2024/2025)
Cello solo (or Violin solo)
Conceptual work: cello version dur. 20 min - 20 hours, violin version dur. 20 seconds
Commissioned by Yoi Kawakubo for his video work “Slow Violencello” (2024)
Premiere (cello version) on October 30, 2024, Yoi Kawakubo's exhibition "Left is Right－The Garden of 4.5 Billion Years and Boiled Frogs", Maruki Gallery, Saitama, Japan
Premiere (violin version) on June 6, 2025, in Freiburg, Germany by Orest Smovzh
In 'Slow Violence' for violoncello, the performer does not need to be a trained musician. The piece involves executing an exceptionally slow "glissando" with maximum bow pressure. This technique produces a series of alternating scratchy sounds with a random rhythm. A performance of this work can last anywhere from 20 minutes to 20 hours.
This work also exists as a violin solo version. It's titled 'Slow Violence (fast-forward)', and it only lasts 20 seconds. TR, 2025
• • •
“Slow Violencello” (2024), was filmed primarily in Rokkasho Village, Aomori Prefecture, and features the artist playing the cello in a forest, shot on 16mm film. This work draws inspiration from the concept of “Slow Violence”—the idea of a subtle yet inexorable violence that progresses unnoticed and cannot be easily addressed—often associated with environmental issues, forming the central theme of the exhibition. (Maruki Gallery, 2024)