Oompah, Tom-tom, Tootle-too & Toot narrates the story of four members of an orchestra who animatedly chat during a break backstage at the Henry Le Bœuf concert hall in Brussels. Through gossip, arguments, and existential crises, they shake the axioms and notions of community, authenticity and happiness. The dialogues by
Lili Reynaud-Dewar are illustrated by Kristien Daem's photographs of Gaillard & Claude's sculptures.
The sculptures depicted in the book are part of a larger corpus previously exhibited between 2015 and 2016 in “Early Development of Calculus” at Etablissement d'en face, Bruxelles, “A Proper Orchestra is Fun for Everyone!” at Les Bains-Douches, Paris, and “A Finite Sum” at In extenso, Clermont-Ferrand.
Gaillard & Claude make
sculptures, editions,
musical tracks,
radio broadcasts and other forms that most often appear as groups—like friends or families—relating to each other through music, science, sociopolitics, and art in a form of joyful play.