Felix Kindermann - Choir Piece
From his sculptural practice, Felix Kindermann* examines the spatial dimension of time, movement and sound. His most recent work, ‘Choir Piece’, presents itself as a performance executed by sixteen singers from the Ghent Singers choir and sets an immaterial score under the exhibition ‘Highlights for a Future, The Collection (1)’.
‘Choir Piece’ will be shown when the exhibition ‘Highlights for a Future, The Collection (1)’ is already partially dismantled. This transitional phase also concerns the museum, which seems to be weighing up the accumulative processes that underpin its collection against a performance, which is time-bound and impossible to preserve. In this case however, it still exists as “soziales Ding im Raum” [social thing in space].
‘Composition for Separated Musicians’, which was commissioned from the American composer Natalie Dietterich, provides each performer with a score containing minimal notation, free syntax and a number of performance instructions. The final form of the composition is determined by the improvisations made by the singers, who can use their voices to confirm, ignore or eclipse one another. Various interventions, such as fragmentation and acoustic distortion, further disrupt the collective nature of the choir and essentialise Kindermann’s research into the impact of a far-reaching deconstruction on the inherent harmony of a classical composition.
The vocal lines are translated, via the museum architecture, into a choreography that spatially plays on the theme of separation and connection. It requires a constant repositioning of both performers and spectators, thereby involving them in an individual experience. Against the background of their mutual interactions, a social organism emerges in which moments of alienation, conditioning and dominance can be read as manifestations of a social condition.
With kind support of Tony & Sissi Moens.
- Concept and text: Felix Kindermann
- Composition: Natalie Dietterich
- Choreographic performance: Felix Kindermann, Jochem van Laarhoven & Ivan Cheng
- Ghent Singers:
- Sopranos: Marion Bauwens, Jolien de Gendt, Marnie Deweer, Wineke van Lammeren
- Altos: Sonia Sheridan Jacquelin, Boris Kondov, Paúl Sojo, Dida Gonzales
- Tenors: Ivan Goossens, Henk Pringels, Ivan Yohan, Guillaume Huybrechts
- Basses: Mark Trigg, Wouter Vandenginste, Andres Soler, Pieter Coene
* Felix Kindermann (b. 1978, Cologne, Germany) lives and works in Brussels. Upcoming exhibitions and performances include Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton, US; KIT, Duesseldorf, DE; Lesage, Brussels, BE; and Art Verona, IT. Recent exhibitions and performances include Fondation CAB, Brussels, BE; Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Ghent, BE; 76,4, Brussels, BE; Deborah Bowmann,Brussels, BE; These Things Take Time, Ghent, BE; Galerie Nadine Feront (2014, 2015, and 2016); and Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (45cbm), DE. Kindermann, who earned an MFA in Industrial Design from Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and an MFA from Sint-Lukas Brussels in 2010. He is currently Visiting Professor of Mixed Media at Sint-Lucas Ghent.
Citadelic Jazz at 9 pm
GIOVANNI BARCELLA 'BASSA SERATA' (IT/BE/FR/) - Giovanni Barcella (drums), Stefaan Dheedene (Clacque, installation, performance), Manolo Cabras (double bass), Brice Soniano (double bass), Younes Zarhoni (voice), Alber (werktekst).
Practical information:
- Thursday 3 October 2019, between 6 and 9 pm.
- Entrance: museum ticket.
