Concert | Musical Works by Visual Artists

Graffiti Composition

The performance of ‘Graffiti Composition’ goes back to the work of the same name that Christian Marclay created in 1996 as part of the sound art exhibition sonambiente – festival für hören und sehen (sonambiente – festival for hearing and seeing) in Berlin. His contribution to the exhibition consisted of a total of 5,000 blank sheet music pages in poster format, which were “wildly” plastered around Berlin, in bars and institutions, as an invitation to the public to leave notes or any kind of graffiti on them. The resulting “compositions” were documented photographically, and Marclay later compiled a selection of these photos for a print edition.

Based on this edition, parts of the extensive, collectively created score are now being realised musically for the first time. The musicians invited by Christian Marclay all have extensive experience in working with open notation and improvisational forms. A selection of the scores they interpret will be premiered in the upper hall of the Neue Nationalgalerie.

Programme

Christian Marclay
Graffiti Composition
World premiere

Cast

Anthony Colemanpiano
Shelley Hirschvoice

Ensemble zeitkratzer
Butch Morrisconductor

A co-production of Freunde Guter Musik Berlin e.V., Nationalgalerie and MaerzMusik / Berliner Festspiele. With the support of the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie