Casa del Lago, Kulturzentrum in Mexico City

23 May, 2024 Programme
18:30

Adi Gelbart – Poems by Alpha
for string quartet and electronics (2020)

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25 May, 2024 Programme
16:00

Tania Candiani / Rogelio Sosa – La ofrenda
Commissioned by Ensemble KNM Berlin (2022)

Electronic table
by AnA Maria Rodriguez, Cosima Gerhardt, Carlos Iturralde and Juan Felipe Waller

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Adi Gelbart – Poems by Alpha

The multimedia artist and programmer Adi Gelbart intermingles jazz, library music, musique concrète, weird rock music and even weirder synthesizer sounds to humorously pursue essential questions: How can creativity be defined when man and machine are inextricably united? What if computers take over? For this purpose the human musician Gelbart works with a poetry writing machine called »Alpha«. Rather than trying to pass for human, Alpha is designed to do as poorly as possible on a Turing test. Together with the string quartet of the KNM, Gelbart will interpret Alpha’s poems in a concert for strings, speech synthesis and electronics. The soulful and multi-layered music is meant to build a bridge between the computerized artist and the human audience. The piece takes up Gelbart’s novel Egglike, which has a soundtrack with lyrics written by Alpha.
Composition: Adi Gelbart, poems: Alpha

Adi Gelbart, synthesizer/bass clarinet

Alicia Urreta, stage

Ensemble KNM Berlin
Theodor Flindell, violin
Michael Yokas, violin
Kirstin Maria Pientka, viola
Cosima Gerhardt, cello

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Tania Candiani/Rogelio Sosa – La ofrenda (The Offering)

The translation between diverse notation and representation systems are key in Tania Candiani’s artistic practice. In »La ofrenda«, the artist uses dance notation which is the record of four-dimensional body movements (time being the fourth dimension) into graphic signs drawn and written in a two-dimensional system. Based on the book »Folkloric Dances of Mexico« (Zacarias Segura Salinas; 1976, »Danzas Folclóricas de México«) that suggests an Alphabet of Steps (which is basically a writing system that represents dance sequences with the goal of preserving folkloric traditions), the artist proposes a translation gesture: to use the instructions meant for the moving body as instructions for moving and exploring the musical and instrumental space. For this, she invites Rogelio Sosa to collaborate with her making an interpretation of these notations, graphics and instructions and translate them into an improvisation score. This way, specific variations will be assigned to the instrumental ensemble in both directions, through musical interpretation and through the actual movement of the musicians in space, turning the bodily instructions into new musical and performative values. »La ofrenda« (the offering), is a traditional dance of Huichol origin that is danced in Colotlán, Jalisco during the patron saint festivities of Saint Peter’s Day and Holy Thursday of the Ascension.

Duration: 20 minutes

Juan Felipe Waller, maracas
José Manuel Alcantara, ukulele

Alicia Urreta, stage

Ensemble KNM Berlin
Theodore Flindell, violin ｜ Michael Yokas, violin ｜ Kirstin Maria Pientka, viola ｜ Cosima Gerhardt, violoncello

Electronic table
by AnA Maria Rodriguez, Cosima Gerhardt, Carlos Iturralde and Juan Felipe Waller

The three artists recycle the sound of paper and cardboard found in Mexico City. Once these materials were wood, then packaging material – now they are used as instruments and reactivate the poetry that is inherent in their first life, in nature.

Duration: 15 mintues

AnA Maria Rodriguez, Cardboard box, Electronics ｜Cosima Gerhardt, Violoncello, Cardboard box｜Carlos Iturralde, Electronics｜ Juan Felipe Waller, Cardboard box, Electronics