Musical Performances at Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin

For the exhibitions from Bruce Nauman and Robert Mapplethorpe, Konstantia Gourzi conceived and directed musical performances, which took place in the exhibition halls of the German Guggenheim museum.

 

The Project

These were however no ordinary museum concerts, but rather choreographed performances. The musicians entered the exhibition and let themselves be inspired. They played according to how they experienced the pictures, interrogated them and involved the audience in this interpretative process. Pictures, musicians, public – everybody took part.

 

Performances

Musical Performance for „Bruce Nauman: Theaters of Experience“ (2003)

Under the direction of Konstantia Gourzi, specially conceived by her for the exhibition “Bruce Nauman: Theaters of Experience”, this musical performance took place four times at the museum. Three young musicians played works by John Cage, Steve Reich and Luciano Berio – composers, that inspired Bruce Nauman. The theme of the exhibition was the use of performance strategies for heightened self-awareness in artists and spectators, and this was taken up and musically continued.

Wolfgang Zamastil, cello
Angela Jaffé, violin
Freyja Gunnlaugsdóttir, clarinet

Musical Performance „RoMa Duos“ for „Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition“ (2004)

This accompanying musical performance also took place four times in the exhibition, directed and conceived by Konstantia Gourzi. Two young musicians played instrumental duos from the 16th and 17th centuries, by Johann Sebastian Bach, Michael Haydn, Georg Philipp Telemann, Orlando die Lasso, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Claudio Monteverdi. Konstantia Gourzi had rewritten these duos for saxophone and trombone.

Alexander Darashkevich, saxophone
Daniel Ploeger, trombone

 

Links

Zur Werkseite von op. 21 RoMa Duos 10-12
Zur Werkseite von op. 22 RoMa Duos 1-9