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Ingeborg
the busker queen
by Gitte Villesen
Cibrino the Rat King
and Ingeborg the Busker Queen travelled and performed together for
almost 10 years. After which Ingeborg settled down in Vorbasse,
a little country town, which hosts the yearly market fair where
the buskers traditionally meet. Together, Ingeborg and Cibrino built
up a collection of busker related items and opened a busker museum
in the house where Ingeborg lived. Each had their own section, but
it was Ingeborg who resided there, and who ran the museum. Today,
the museum is closed. Cibrino and Ingeborg, who are both still alive,
have willed their collection to the city of Vorbasse, with the intention
that the museum should be there for generations to come, just as
they themselves built it, according to the premises of the busker
life, and that they should have control of the collection for as
long as they lived. There have been disagreements with some of the
people responsible for the nearby local history museums about which
things they may have, and when they could have them. As the situation
stands today, the most outstanding busker pieces are spread out
among the local museums and schools. Ingeborg still performs with
her barrel organ, and as can be seen in the video, still has many
different items and an abundance of stories which in one way or
another relate to the busker life. Even though the museum is closed,
it is still possible to visit the Busker Queen, her rats, her two
parrots, and her cats. Ingeborg can be reached at telephone number
+45 7533 3373, and lives on Hovborgvej 8 in Vorbasse, Denmark. Ingeborg
is one of the very first people I ever filmed, and even though the
first recordings were never used in a piece, she continued to pop
up in my thoughts. The video I've made is divided up into three
different sessions, the first from October 5th, then from the 6th,
and then from the 27th, all 1998. In the last session, my good friend
Else pops up. Over dinner one night I told Else about Ingeborg,
and Else became very intent upon meeting her. Else is, just like
Ingeborg, one of the very first people I've filmed, but that
film is also among the material that was never used. Besides the
video, the work consists of a plate with text and photos, and of
a smaller A3 poster which contains a short version of Ingeborg's
story, and which bears her address. Ingeborg has been given a few
of these posters which she can use as a sort of business card. In
conjunction with the showing of this work a stack of these posters
will be made available to the public.
Interview
Gitte: How long have
you kept rats?
Ingeborg: I've
had them... yes, I've had them for all the 18 years I've
been here. It was in the start of the '70s, when I was over
at Finsens (1).
And then they needed someone to clean up over at the live stock
stalls. Nobody wanted to because, you know, they didn't smell
that good, but I said that I would do it. So, I went up there, and
then I had the rats, and I worked there and had a fine time with
the rats. So Cibrino (2), he'd heard something about me being...
that I had something to do with rats and he had to go to the hospital,
and he came to me and asked if I would take care of his rats, as
he had no idea what to do with them while he was at the hospital.
Then I said that that would be fine, and I took the rats home with
me... yes, they slept with me at night, and I had them... ohh they
were delightful, they ran after me, they were so sweet that when
he finally came home again and wanted them back, it was hard for
me to part with them.
Gitte: (laughs)
Ingeborg: But then
it wasn't long before I was fired from that job, because I'd
broken the rules for sick leave ...sick days.
Gitte: Yes.
Ingeborg: Because
there was so much of everything out there... I first worked at the
chemists and there was so much of that stuff that I just couldn't
take, I broke out in hives all over my body, there were many times
I was sick for 14 days, so my sick days were used up very quickly
and I was fired and I wasn't at all sad about that, because
then I could travel with him, and I could be with the rats, we had
them together, and so I've been with rats since the beginning
of the '70s. We've had a delightful busker life, yes we
have.
Gitte: So you both
worked with rats even before you met each other.
Ingeborg: Yes, it
was the rats that did it.
(1) Institute for
Medicinal Research.
(2) Cibrino the Rat
King has worked with rats all his life, and was already at that
time known across the country for his trained rats and his rat circus.
Originally published
in: Wiener Secession Catalogue, Gitte Villesen, 1999ISBN 3-901926-08-9
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