About the project:
Frag uns nicht, wer wir sind is a 1-hour hybrid based upon the biblical story of the three magi. The project was one of the winning propositions for the weit& initiative, in which the selected artist has to explore the space of a Catholic church from Zürich (in my case: the DreikönigenKirche ). The main topics it concentrates on are communication, miscommunication, identity and connectedness and it was conceived as having both an artistic dimension and a spiritual one. The matter out of which is constructed is based on the selected texts („Wise, we?” by Stephan Teuwissen, The Bible and Queen Marie of Romania memoirs), music, movement (both live and virtual) and lights. The live movement is performed by a master of ceremony, role which is fulfilled by Meinrad Furrer, theologian and the weit& coordinator. Through his actions - more akin to rituals - there is an attempt to create the illusion of invoking voices from the loudspeakers, which gradually get exposed as being some sort of entities merely related to the three magi. Sonically speaking the approach is one born out of austerity: the human voice predominates, with the addition of only three instruments: the singing bowl, the incense and the ritual drum. These ritual instruments are mostly used live by the master of ceremony. Despite this fact, both austerity and flamboyancy are being employed compositionally, as a result of the concepts derived from my analysis of the topic. From the point of view of form the macrostructure is moulded after the main text, but its backbone is rooted in the design of the Christian liturgy (be that Catholic or Orthodox).
Stephan Teuwissen - author of „Wise, we?”
Meinrad Furrer - Master of Ceremony
Ioan-Alexandru Alexandri, Ionuț Davidescu - singers
Brady Coyle, Richard Blair, Yve Delaquis, Lamine Diouf - narrators
Stephanie Schmidt - artistic advisor
Serafin Aebli - spatial audio design and assistance
„Frag uns nicht, wer wir sind” is a 1 hour long performance based upon the biblical story of the three magi. The project was one of the projects selected by the weit& initiative, in which the selected artist had to explore the space of a Catholic church from Zürich. The main topics it concentrates on are communication, miscommunication, identity and connectedness and it was conceived as having both an artistic dimension and a spiritual one. The artistic fabric is based on the selected texts, my own music, movement (both live and virtual) and lights. The live movement is performed by a master of ceremony whose actions appear as an attempt to invoke voices from the loudspeakers, which are gradually revealed as being somewhat related to the three magi.