Muziekgebouw Amsterdam
Ragged Music Festival, April 2023
At the Ragged Music Festival, Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, 29—30 April 2023, a combination of existing and newly created works went on display, woven into the fabric of the building and selected in dialogue with the musical programme.
A new audio piece, ‘Fragments of Short Stories by DH Lawrence’, was created for the Muziekgebouw’s Atrium with its view on ’t Ij, Amsterdam’s riverfront. Read by people I first met on portrait commissions, the excerpts were chosen for their multifaceted explorations of being human. In line with the festival’s musical programme, the texts delve into the theme of transition/transformation, being to not-being, not-being to being. All readers recorded their contribution on a smartphone or similar digital device, wherever they happened to be at the time.
Simon McBurney ‘The Last Straw (Fanny and Annie)’ 1921
Tamzin Griffin ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ 1909
Angelo Tijssens ‘The Mortal Coil’ 1917
Jessie Buckley & Robert Wilson ‘Tickets, Please!’ 1918
Aidan Gillen ‘The Prussian Officer’ 1914
Ruth Wilson ‘New Eve and Old Adam’ 1912
Aurélie Lannoy ‘The Blind Man’ 1922
Chris Power ‘England, My England’ 1915
Click here to listen to ‘Tickets, Please!’, ‘New Eve and Old Adam’ and ‘England, My England’
The film ‘Blood Orange’ made its premiere at the festival. You can find more information on the Ragged Music Festival here.
Press: FT Magazine, April 2023
Many thanks to Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy who are the creative and logistic forces behind the festival as well as all the musicians who played there: Alina Ibragimova, Elena Stikhina, Mario Brunello and Slagwerk Den Haag and everyone at Muziekgebouw Amsterdam.
Installation shots by Foppe Schut and Eva Vermandel