brigitta muntendorf

THEATRE OF ECHO

Theatre of Echo
audio visual concert installation for multichannel video/audio

Composition, Conception, Video
Brigitta Muntendorf

Premiere
24.04.20 Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik / Online Stream

Commissioned by
Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, supported by Kunststiftung NRW

Duration
45 min

Performed by
GrauSchumacher Piano Duo 

Technical / spatial needs
space for two 180x90x60cm glas cabinets / glass coffins and 25 people distributed within a circle surrounded by a 5.1 multichannel sound system, laptop or 2x Raspberry Pi for synchronization of the 5.1 sound and 2-channel video.  

Adaptions
Theatre of Echo is based on Trilogy for two pianos. 

audio-visual multichannel concert installation

Trilogy for two pianos played live, is both music and narrative, a theatre of listening that makes transience and unstoppability tangible. The audiovisual installation Theatre of Echo is the logical continuation of this concert situation, transcending the boundaries of scene, concert and radio. The gestures anchored in the composition are enlarged, transformed and removed from their context, spun further and reappear in idiosyncratic, alien and fictional situations.
While the music can be heard as a multichannel mix, various videos with different perspectives of the pianists performing without their instrument can be viewed through huge insect glasses or glas coffins.

All films are shown simultaneously. Theatre of Echo unleashes a play with synchronicities and non-linearity in search of grace in lostness. Only the performers remain as embodiments of sound, close by whose side we are led through the installation. This concert installation has a beginning and an echo, the audience can choose whether to move freely around the room or listen intently like a concert.

video stills

installation / version “70th anniversary Musik der Zeit WDR”