one, two, many

"To me, the voice is a subject in many ways. Because I use voice-offs a lot, the voice becomes a thing unto itself in the film, a voice without a body. This led me to questions like: Where is the voice really located? Inside the body, or outside? Does it exist when no one is speaking to you? This was part of the inception of one, two, many, a kind of essay on the voice." Manon de Boer, 2022.

The film one, two, many consists of three performances, connected by themes like the body and listening. In the first part, one, flutist Michael Schmid plays a composition by Istvàn Matus that is based on circular breathing. In the second part, two, a voice-over describes the voice of semiotician and philosopher Roland Barthes in his first lecture on "how to live together" (1977). In the last part, many, a group listens to four singers perform Tre canti popolari [Three popular songs] by composer Giacinto Scelsi, a piece that is filled with onomatopoeia and sharp sounds.

Each part in its own way explores the existential space of the voice, a recurring theme for de Boer, like in Blindsight, which is also part of the Kanal collection. She also addresses the subject of "Idiorrhythmy" for the first time, a term coined by Roland Barthes in the aforementioned lecture. Barthes uses this concept to describe the freedom of every individual to live according to their own rhythm within a group, and to the tension between the individual and society in general. De Boer made the film for documenta (13).