This is the performance of “Poem of a Cell” in Donostia / San Sebastian, Spain, created by Stefan Winter. The first half of 2017 I worked intesively on recording, editing and designing the sound in close collaboration with the director, Stefan Winter. Here is a discribtion of this project:
Poem of a Cell – 2017 by Stefan Winter
Triptych of Love and Ecstasy
Sound- and 3-Channel-Video Installation
Winter combines sound art and music with visual worlds, thereby creating “Living Paintings”. At the heart is the woman, embodied by the artist Noriko Kura. Works by Pontormo, Michelangelo, Rosso Fiorentino, as well as images of the inferno, the Wailing Wall, Kaaba, St Peter Cathedral, and the life of the cells brand on the female body.
Winter commissioned the composers Uri Caine, Fabio Nieder, Rajab Suleiman and Fumio Yasuda to create pieces out of fragments of the erotic love poems by the Shulammite (Song of Songs), Mechthild von Magedburg (The flowing Light of the Godhead) and Rabi’a al-Basri (Unity with the Divine). Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sounds and symbols work together and tell the story of woman, how it was, how it is, how it will be… All three poems are based on the theme which links Judaism, Christianity and Islam, bridging all their differences: love, ecstasy and, ultimately, the unification with the divine love.
The artist Noriko Kura is the center of this fantastic world of images. In the paradisaical key scene, she ascends the heavenly tower she created in order to attain the last, highest goal of all mysticism. She conquers all earthly obstacles, discards her fetters, in order to be united with the absolute.
Director of photography: Gernot Aschoff, Assistant: Florian Epple
Director of sound: Adrian von Ripka
Musicians: Alan Bern, Marco Blaauw, Joachim Badenhorst, Uri Caine Trio, Cecilia Gospel Choir, Exaudi Vocal Ensemble, Forma Antiqva Baroque Ensemble, Kettwiger Bach-Ensemble, Mtendeni Maulid Ensemble, Saada Nassor, Ernst Reijseger, Schlagquartett Köln, Rajab Suleiman, Barbara Walker, Fanny Winter, Fumio Yasuda
Voice over: Barbara Sukowa
Artist: Noriko Kura
Author and director: Stefan Winter
Producer: Mariko Takahashi
ZANZIBAR: STONE TOWN, Zanzibar International Film Festival, Old Fort of Zanzibar
July 16th, 2017, Sound and 3-Channel-Video Installation
SPAIN: SAN SEBASTIAN, Donostia Kultura, Zurriola Beach
July 20th, 2017, Sound and 3-Channel-Video Installation with live performance
ISRAEL: HAIFA, Head, School of the Arts, Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa
October 16th through 19th, 2017, Sound- and 3-Channel-Video Installation
October 22nd, 23rd and 24th, 2017, Sound and 3-Channel-Video Installation with live performance
October 25th 2017, Sound and 3-Channel-Video Installation
GERMANY: MUNICH, Kunsthalle-Rathausgalerie
November 9th thought 25th, 2017, Sound and 3-Channel-Video Installation, Live-Performance
FRANCE: BORDEAUX, Musiques de Nuit
dates not yet decided
TURKEY: ISTANBUL, Bahcesehir Universität
dates not yet decided
GERMANY: WITTEN, Märkisches Museum
dates not yet decided