You Don't Love Me Yet brings people together in an inviting encounter between the artist, musicians, and audience members; the catalyst of which is an 80's pop song.
In her long term project You don’t love me yet, which has been touring to different international cities between 2002 and 2006, Madrid will be the 16th location, Johanna Billing invites musicians to play a live cover version of a 1984 song by the American singer-songwriter Roky Erickson according to their own interpretation. The idea sprung from a fact the artist heard on the radio that there are more citizens living alone in Sweden than in any other country in the world.
In this project, that plays with the potential of covers and their invitation for subversion and reclamation, Johanna Billing makes herself as an artist almost invisible. Behind the scenes though, she organizes the event as precisely as possible. For example, by choosing a location that normally is not used as a music podium, or proposing an afternoon to stage the event instead of an evening, she consciously tries to break through existing patterns of behavior in both the music and the visual arts scene. As an artist she facilitates a collective experience where individuality expresses itself in the different artistic interpretations of the song, where the performing musicians are invited to listen to each others’ presentations and where the audience is witness to the potential of repetition, as the event offeres a wide range of versions of this sole song text. Each event has its specific line up of performances by rock bands, choirs, laptop musicians, professionals, amateurs or impromptu get togethers, mainly coming from the local scene. All the concerts end with the video screening of the studio recording of You don’t love me yet, a work made by Johanna Billing together with a group of Swedish musicians in Stockholm, 2003.