year: 2009 - 2010
commission type: unsolicited
collaborators: Sandra & Jeroen van Veen (pianists), Douwe Eisenga (composer), Ko van Dun (art historian)
team: Marc van Asseldonk, Auguste van Oppen, Sandra Cecet

In honour of the opening of the first realised project of O+A and the premier of ‘Les Chants Estivaux’ by modern classical composer Douwe Eisenga, an inspiring cross-disciplinary collaboration was developed. Douwe Eisenga, Ko van Dun (art historian), Sandra & Jeroen van Veen (pianists), and O+A offer a new interpretation to the relationship between stage and audience, architecture and music.

Ko van Dun starts by giving a presentation which places the performance into a broad artistic and historical context. This provides a natural introduction for the music and space the audience will experience. Following this animated introduction, the performance transcends into the composition by Douwe Eisenga. In the ambition to realise an artwork where music and space undergo a dialogue, a piece has been selected for four pianos by the composer named ‘Les Chants Estivaux’. The piece, which is written in the legacy of composers Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Simeon ten Holt, is characterised by relatively elementary scores which form a complex entity once combined. The audience is empowered by giving it the opportunity to write its own story based on the music. The latter democratic attribute served as a starting point for the design of the installation.

The classical attributes of a theatre are discarded. Rather than commonly placing the audience in the seats of a theatre, they are placed on stage, in the midst of the music. The spectator may, as such, determine his own position in respect to the pianist. The music is given a spatial component by placing the pianos in separate cylinders, and although the pianos are confined to their own cylinders, each cylinder is made accessible to the audience. The spectator may therefore dissect or integrate the music, simply by following a self-determined path throughout the installation. The four cylinders are placed in a larger cylinder which creates an endless labyrinth in which the audience meanders. The music acts as the orienting factor in this directionless environment.

The performance experienced its premiere on September 20 2009 in Theater De Schalm in Veldhoven and was performed a second time in the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) on January 22, 2010. After a brief provocation by Ko van Dun, the audience used the installation in surprisingly different manners. Some would walk quietly and thoughtfully through the space to absorb each and every second. Some would make photographs while others would engage in conversation. By placing the public in an installation which denies every concept of direction, an intriguing process is developed where relationships between stage and audience, rhythm and space are reexamined.