I am currently in Hamburg, creating a new performance called Merge with Sounding Situations at Kampnagel. I’m providing the technical management and lighting design for the show. Merge premieres on Thursday May 26th and runs until May 29th.
Here is some background information…
In a photograph from 1906, a crowd in southern Rwanda gathers for a magical event in front of a small apparatus on a table: deceiving the masses through technology. Behind the table is an official of the German colonial administration. The artists sell their talent without compensation. The funnel is directed at the musicians to the right of the table. A machine that sucks in the sound, carves the voices and the music into the wax rollers.
In the music theatre piece MERGE, Sounding Situations play with the idea of how the process of recording makes us who we are. Those who press the record button have the power, framed for themselves and others. Through repetition, sounds, music, language become part of our identity.
In MERGE, the musicians and performers become sound carriers who turn the stage into a sounding negotiation space: Who owns what and who belongs where?
MERGE is performed in Hamburg and Bujumbura simultaneously, and in reverse, Burundian and Rwandan artists go in search of what they consider is worth recording.
You can find ticket information here.
25/06/22 update : photos from the performance at Kampnagel added – KN Photos – Juha Hanen (@juhahansen)
