Vokal-de-konstruktion
A live choir installation from Natalia Orendain and Mareike Dobewall
Concept and Space
Funded by the Goethe Institut Mexiko and the Secretaria de Cultura Jalisco
Co-production with the Infants Choir of the Cathedral of Guadalajara
March 2017 Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara MEXICO
In collaboration with the scenographer Mareike Dobewall (DEU/NOR/SWE) we created a musical installation inside of which the public could move freely. Within the Instituto Cultural Cabañas, the Children's Choir of the Guadalajara Cathedral performed German and Mexican compositions that are part of the Cathedral's Historical Musical Archive. The music, in dialogue with the space and the digital image, generated complex relationships between the elements. In “Vokal-de konstruktion”, the conductor is separated from the different choral voices, which are located in different parts of the building. To communicate with each other, the conductor's image is transmitted live to each voice-room via cameras and screens. Simultaneously the sound of the vocal parts is being transmitted live to the choral conductor with microphones and speakers. We build a media structure allowing communication to happen at different levels. With this work we aimed to create new connections, explore new methods, and bring to light music that has been preserved and protected in the Guadalajara Cathedral Archive for centuries. Together we aim to create an innovative and contemporary form of choral performance. In this work we made use of the immersive quality of music and architecture. The distribution of the voices of the performers in the different spaces helped to articulate the complexity of the musical language of the selected pieces. The fragmentation of the choral pieces recognizes the individual elements of the structure and reveals certain unheard-of qualities. The volatility of the sound was made explicit. It is through the spatial experience that the scores were transformed into phenomenological realities.
