ELEMENTARZEICHEN (ELEMENTARY SIGNS)

An „unheard“ concert, a film and a performance by Ruth Kemna

 

What can music do in the face of the continuing deaths on the borders of Europe?

Can it help us understand the longings and hopes of those we will never meet?

 

On a small fishing boat in the Mediterranean, not far from the islands of Lampedusa and Linosa, surrounded by endless expanses of water, a violist plays a concert - without a visible audience, only for the dead who lost their lives on the way to Europe. How can one mourn for someone one does not know? Should we not play for each individual?

The exploration of these questions and the search for new sounds are jotted down on long sheets of paper, scores that later become themselves instruments and images of translocated water. Thus, new compositions for the solo viola, its wooden body and the human voice are born from research into water, which blurs the pentagram of Western music, and from serial music, which consists of numerical sequences of geographical coordinates.

 

Every person in the world is a beginning - this performance is also a beginning, an attempt to play living music for all of us.

 

 

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RUTH KEMNA - Concept, Music, Video and Performance

ALESSANDRO DRUDI - Video and Editing

LUCA SCHILIRÓ - Video operator

GERLANDO GIARDINI - Fisherman

SIMONE SFAMELI - Sound and Light Technician

GABRIELE SUTERA - Setup Technician

SIMONE MANNINO - Set-up Consultant

RAGAZZI BAYE FALL - Buffett

 

Support: CURVA MINORE - Associazione per la musica contemporanea, Palermo

 

Premiere: 15 & 16 Novembre 2024, Curva Minore, Sala Perriera, Cantieri Culturali Alla Zisa, Palermo

 

Sponsored by THE EUROPEAN UNION and THE GOETHE INSTITUTE

 

Further supported by: City of Palermo, Atelier Nostra Signora, Ministero della Cultura Italy, Regione Sicilia Assessorato Turismo, Sport e Spettacolo, I Ragazzi Baye Falle

 

Special Thanks to: Cheikh Sene, Heidemarie Siegel, Gaetano La Rosa, Kasia Wojcik

 

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