Fot. Patrycja Płanik.
On 8 and 9 November (8 pm) Poznań (Hall MP2 of the Poznań International Fair, u l. Głogowska 14) will host the premiere of Architecture of Light [Architektura światła], a choreography by Paulina Wyciechowska, set to the music by Prasqual, a composer, sound architect and pianist. The costumes for the production were designed by Paulina Plizga, who uses snippets of fabrics, bundled threads and other recycled materials to create costumes. The lighting director is Katarzyna Łuszczyk, who collaborates on everyday basis with Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Nowy Teatr in Warsaw.
Architecture of Light is the third part of Prasqual’s opera project Orlando, whose underlying idea is the concept of Love as the driving force of the universe as understood by Islam. The conception follows from the notion that the world came into being from Eternity without the Beginning through the separation of the Loving (Creator) and the Loved (Creation), and the journey along the spiral of consciousness lasts until the Loving and the Loved do not unite in a mystical Union after undergoing a series of rites. This is also the primary theme of Architecture of Light.
The piece is going to be performed to live music by students of the Academy of Music in Poznań under Prasqual. The seven initial rites is going to be performed by unified instrumental groups (2 tubas, 4 oboes, 2 saxophones, 3 trombones, 4 clarinets, 4 percussion players and 4 horns), while the eighth one – the Rite of Mystical Unity – will feature soloists Chelsey Schill (soprano) and Nathan Plante (trumpet).
“The musician’s gestures will become an additional quality of the performance, I will be directing them. A musician’s body is an act of art, while his instrument becomes a theatrical prop,” Prasqual claims.
“This choreography is a search for common elements and universally observed symbols in different religions. All religions have a rite of purification. And in the performance we want to show this passing from darkness to light, reaching the truth, something that is natural, pure. As well as different paths that people take to arrive at self-knowledge,” explains Paulina Wyciechowska.
The creators of the performance also point out that their intention was to go beyond genre limitations, to experiment. “We want to show what chorography and music may become, what is hasn’t been yet,” they stated during the press conference preceding the premiere. “There will be no cultural heritage without experimenting,” said Prasqual.
The production was supported financially by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage under the programme “Collections” – “Composing Commissions”, implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance in Warsaw.
Dancers: Andrzej Adamczak, Karina Adamczak-Kasprzak, Urszula Bernat-Jałocha, Artur Bieńkowski, Agnieszka Fertała, Kornelia Lech, Guillerno Millan Merida, Paweł Malicki and Daniel Stryjecki of the Polish Dance Theatre in Poznań.
(Edited by Anna Koczorowska)
