ENDE DES UNGESCHRIEBENEN / END OF THE UNWRITTEN
Film-Concert-Installation by Christine Nagel based on a poem
by Ilse Aichinger Composition: Dietrich Eichmann
The poem „Ende des Ungeschriebenen“ by Jewish writer Ilse Aichinger (*1.11.1921 in Vienna; †11.11.2016 in Vienna) forms the starting point for the conceptual development of film images, editing, staging and composition for the live concert installation with a clarinettist and two players behind the screen. The performance is a sensual experience that allows the audience to experience the concentrate of the poem. A dialogue develops between the live musician and the moving projection screens over the course of the concert: The clarinettist reacts to the film images, virtually challenging them to be present.
In the concert installation, time and memory are measured, as expressed in the poem: The nameless dead can no longer speak. But the survivors, who have had the experience of near death, can use this experience as a starting point to rediscover life for themselves and others. From this perspective, the production has an impact on the audience.
TOMONORI TAKEDA – clarinet LILITH MAXION and partner – 2 players ANNETT ILIJEW – editing DIETRICH EICHMANN – Composition CHRISTINE NAGEL – concept, film and direction
Film and sound recordings by Christine Nagel and Super 8 films by Ilse Aichinger were used for the film.
If possible, the installation should be performed outdoors after dark. However, it can also be shown in a darkened room.
Length: 27 min
The piece was scheduled to premiere in Japan in 2022 on the occasion of Ilse Aichinger’s 100th birthday, but could not take place due to the pandemic.
DESCRIPTION:
Three movable screens placed next to each other form a large projection surface. One screen hangs in the room, while the second and third are moved forwards and backwards, sideways and into the depths of the room by two performers. The passages created by the choreography of the screens on the vertical and horizontal lines symbolise the content of the poem. This poetically describes the place or existence of the Holocaust survivors as an „in-between“. This is how the writer Ilse Aichinger, herself a Holocaust survivor, once put it.
The musician moves through the passages between the screens. He appears in front of one screen and disappears behind the other; it is a permanent interplay of on and off. The musician thus embodies the idea of presence and absence and plays with it. The film projected onto the screens consists of three surfaces that divide the image horizontally and vertically, slide into each other, open and close. The three film levels represent three spaces of memory: 1 Security (childhood) 2 Threat (alienated surroundings) 3 Hope (longing for a place of salvation)
The meanest thing about human development is the loss of childhood. Ageing is nothing compared to that. You no longer lose so much. (Ilse Aichinger)
The tripartite nature is also reflected in the screen choreography and composition: three 9-minute runs lead to ever new combinations of images. The choreography of the canvases is different in each run. Sometimes the images fall onto the screens, sometimes one of the three screens is missing and the film image falls into the „void“ or into nature lying in the dark. In this way, the moment of the performance plays along visually and acoustically.
In the composition for clarinet, similar material is processed differently in three sections of 9 minutes each, and here too the three situations are viewed from musically different angles. As he moves between the moving screens, the clarinettist reacts to the current „hanging“ or guidance of the moving screens. In this way, the dialogue between music / image / nature is passed on to the audience.
ENDE DES UNGESCHRIEBENEN So wird niemand wissen von unseren Atemstößen als wir über die Brücke liefen, und was hinter uns liegt, erfahren sie nicht: Die schwachen Namenszüge, die geköpften Sonnen. Die Vorhallen der Spitäler sind still. Ilse Aichinger: Ende des Ungeschriebenen / End of the unwritten. In: Ilse Aichinger: Verschenkter Rat. Poems. Fischer 1991
interlinear translation (not a literary translation!): END OF THE UNWRITTEN So no one will know / of our breaths / when we crossed the bridge, and what lies behind us, / they will not know: The faint traces of names, / the decapitated suns. The lobbies of the hospitals /are silent.
THEME / CONTENT:
The rebellion against the seemingly fixed forms the core of Ilse Aichinger’s poetry from the very beginning. She writes against „the very common opinion of ‚that’s just the way it is‘, which accepts what it finds without question. The world demands to be countered.“ The experience of imminent death was the starting point for her to rediscover life for herself and others.
An existential statement in Aichinger’s writing is that of transition. Three projection surfaces form a staggered stage – the open spaces symbolise Ilse Aichinger’s work, which „stands in between“, as she herself once put it.
The composition brings the thoughts of the poem „Ende des Ungeschriebenen“ / „End of the unwritten“ into our present. Time and memory are measured anew. What remains decipherable when the names have faded and the traces of the 20th century have been consigned to the archives? Ilse Aichinger’s disappearance demands to be countered. Aichinger’s favourite composer is Anton Webern. Her personal closeness to his work seems to correspond with the increasing terseness of her language, which goes as far as silencing. Her poetics of silence is the consequence of her rejection of any form of conformism.
REALISATION:
The concept of the concert installation is based on tripartism in the use of all means: Three screens, placed next to each other, form a 16:9 projection surface. The film image is divided into three parts, both horizontally (upper, middle and lower image) and vertically (right side, centre, left side). In terms of motifs, the film images are based on three existential states (security, threat, hope). The tripartite nature – security, threat, hope – is also reflected in the structure of the musical composition. The projected film and the three parts of the composition each have a length of 9 minutes (3 x 3 minutes). The film is played 3 times in succession together with the 3 states of the composition. This results in a total length of 27 minutes (3 x 9 minutes). The recombination of the two elements creates a new constellation each time.
While the film is pre-produced and the composition is composed, the performance is exposed to chance in the live moment of the performance: The film projection falls on screens that are unsteady as they are moved by players. It is not guaranteed that the entire film image can be seen continuously on the projection surface consisting of three screens. Parts of the image fall into the gap between the screens, into the „in-between“. The players move the screens not only horizontally along the sidelines but also into the depths of the room. As a result, part of the film image is projected out of focus. Or even one of the three screens is missing as a projection surface because the player has stepped out of the fixed film frame with a screen he is guiding.
The choreography of the „screen players“ and the „music player“ explicitly allows for improvised moments. It is not specified when which screen is moved while the film runs continuously in a linear fashion. The composition is played by a clarinettist who moves back and forth between the moving screens. The musician utilises the passages that are presented to him each time. The players themselves decide how they move.
In this way, a moment of free design is added during each live performance, which makes each performance unique and unrepeatable, giving it its freshness and unpredictability. This moment of free choice is also an essential statement of the production.
BIOGRAPHIES:
CHRISTINE NAGEL
AUTHOR AND DIRECTOR Radio play / Acoustic art / Film
Christine Nagel mainly writes and directs radio plays for ARD and Deutschlandfunk; since 1996, she has created more than 90 acoustic works, which have been awarded numerous grants and prizes (including „Radio Play of the Year“ in 2022 and 2019 by the German Academy of Performing Arts in Darmstadt). 1988-1993 studied linguistics, history and politics in Giessen, graduating with a master’s degree. 1995 – 2001 Production and recording manager for cinema documentaries and documentaries at Prounen Filmproduktion Berlin From 2002 to 2005, she lived in London, where she studied choreography at Trinity Conservatoire for Music and Dance London In 2014, she made WO ICH WOHNE. A film for Ilse Aichinger”, Kurtmayerfilm 2014 (89 min). Premiere at the Filmfestival Diagonale Graz 3/2014 and at the Wiener Festwochen 5/2014. 12/2014 – 4/2015: cinema exploitation in German and Austrian arthouse cinemas; „On the Road 2015: Internat. Literaturfestival Bremen; Goethe-Institut Tokyo; Austrian Cultural Institute Tokyo and London 2015. most recently as a world tour, represented by the Austrian Embassy and Austrian Cultural Institute, on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Ilse Aichinger (projections with subtitles in Beijing, Warsaw, Rome, Paris). In November 2022 screenings in Japan.
Her sorcerer’s apprentice story „Siren_web_client.exe“ about speech synthesis and speech recognition tools was in the final selection for the Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden in 2022. In this play, she takes up many aspects of the topics of artificial intelligence and „voice and radio“ in several layers. The play was developed in collaboration with the University of Magdeburg and most recently developed further for the AI festival felicia in November 2023 in a public performance.
As a board member of the Association of Radio Play Directors, she is a representative on the German Media Council, a section of the German Cultural Council, and a founding member of the Hans Flesch Society for Acoustic Art. Christine Nagel lives in Berlin and Jeber-Bergfrieden.
https://henschel-schauspiel.de/de/person/1628 www.ein-film-fuer-ilse-aichinger.de www.christine-nagel.de (password protected)
Awards and honours
Radio Play of the Month 6/2022, nominations for Prix Europa and ARD Radio Play Prize 2022, for: PISTEN. Radio play by Penda Diouf. Editing and direction: Christine Nagel. Music: Niko Meinhold. NDR 2022 Nomination (among the best 3) German Audiobook Award 2022 for: ÜBERREDUNG. Radio play based on Jane Austen, adapted and directed by Christine Nagel. Music: Peter Ehwald. Prod. HR/Hörbuch Hamburg 2020 GRAND PRIX NOVA 2022, 3rd prize and radio play of the month 3/2021, awarded by the Akademie für Darstellende Künste Darmstadt for: SIREN_web_client.exe. Radio play by Christine Nagel. Music: Peter Ehwald. Directed by Christine Nagel. NDR/DLF 2021 Radio Play of the Year 2019 and of the Month 3/2019, awarded by the Akademie für Darstellende Künste Darmstadt, Nomination for ARD Radio Play Prize 2019, Austrian „Radio Play Prize of Critics“ 2019 for: GEH DICHT DICHTIG! Radio play by Ruth Johanna Benrath with texts by Elfriede Gerstl. Music: Lauren Newton. Directed by Christine Nagel. ORF / BR 2019 3rd Prize Grand Prix Nova, Bucharest International Radio Festival 2018 and Radio play of the month 3/2018 for: Blatny’s Kopf. Radio play by Christine Nagel. Music: Peter Ehwald. Directed by Christine Nagel. rbb 2018 2nd place Children’s Radio Play Prize of the MDR Broadcasting Council 2016 for: Mrs Fledder and Mr Lemon. A flighty children’s radio play by Bernd Gieseking. Music: Michael Kessler. Directed by Christine Nagel, HR 2015 Radio play of the month 9/2014 For: …my dad was always hanging from the gallows. Radio play by Niklas Frank based on the book „Bruder Norman“. Music: Gerriet K. Sharma. NDR 2014 Radio Play of the Month 6/2014, nomination for ARD Radio Play Award at ZKM Karlsruhe 11/2014 and „Honourable Mention“ for: „After the disappearance. A fictional dialogue with Ilse Aichinger“ Music: Peter Ehwald/Andreas Pichler, author/director: Ch.Nagel, rbb/ORF 2014 Nomination for ARD Radio Play Award 2010 (and 2nd place) for: „Die Nächsten Besten“ radio play by Dunja Arnaszus Music: Gerd Bessler, Director: Christine Nagel, NDR 2010 Nominated for the Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden 2012, Prix Europa 2012, Radio play of the month 10/2011, for: „Murderer“ radio play by Agnieszka Lessmann Music: Gerd Bessler, Director: Christine Nagel, DLF 2011 2-month project grant from Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop 2009 for libretto/directorial concept for the installative concert opera „Sirene“ composition: Gerd Bessler, stage: Birgit Bessler Radio Play of the Month 4/2007, Šlábbéz Prize Austrian Radio Play Days 2007 Nomination for the Radio Play Prize of the Academy of Arts, 2007, for „Nebeneinander Gehen“ by Dunja Arnaszus, director: Christine Nagel DLF 2006 Šlábbéz Prize Austrian Radio Play Days 2005 For: „Vor dem Verschwinden. At no hour“ by Ilse Aichinger, Adapted and directed by Christine Nagel, DLF 2001 Nominations for Prix Europa and ARD Radio Play Prize 2003 „Iron“ by Rona Munro, directed by Christine Nagel
Scholarships
Working grant from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW / radio play funding 2023 Initial 1 of the Akademie der Künste Berlin 2021 Special grant from the Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe 2020 Border Crosser Grant from the Robert Bosch Foundation 2016 for research in the Czech Republic Project grant at the Künstlerhaus Lukas, Ahrenshoop 2008 Screenplay grant from the Kulturfonds Foundation 2004 for the film WO ICH WOHNE Scholarship from the AHRB (Arts and Humanity Research Board) for postgraduate study at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance 2003
Further
Direction of a radio play seminar at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), January – July 2019 4th year drama student, production of a 3D radio play in collaboration with the Tonmeister programme Media projects with pupils at schools in Neukölln, in collaboration with the Vincentino e.V. foundation (founded by Sandra Maischberger), 2008 – 2020 Participation in the international realisation competition Operare of the Zeitgenössische Oper Berlin 2007.
DIETRICH EICHMANN
COMPOSER Contemporary Classical and Experimental Music
Dietrich Eichmann, born in Erlangen in 1966, grew up in Berlin. As a young man he met Alexander von Schlippenbach, who became his first teacher and mentor. Cecil Taylor, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Luigi Nono and Morton Feldman, as well as Wolfgang Neuss, the „man with the kettledrum“, where those who provided the inspiration that drove his creative impulse. From 1986-92 he studied composition with Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe. He was co-founder of the Neue Komponisten Gesellschaft e.V. (NKG), which presented concerts and happenings in Karlsruhe and on a national and international level from 1990-96. From 1992-95 he completed his studies with Frederic Rzewski at Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Liège (Belgium). He founded the CD label oaksmus and organized the studio concert series of the same name in Berlin in 2000-04.
Eichmann’s compositional oeuvre includes some 60 works in all categories. In 1995-96, a ballet triptych based on his music was commissioned by the Opéra de Lyon in collaboration with choreographer Stéphanie Aubin and performed more than 20 times in Paris and Lyon. His piano concerto Entre deux guerres, premiered in 1999 by the SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and Freiburg, was a highlight of the PGNM festival „Reaktionen – musikalische Konfrontationen mit der politischen Gegenwart“ in Bremen in 2002 and was included in the repertoire of the Swiss Ensemble Contrechamps 10 years later. In 2002 the first version of his Prayer to the Unknown Gods of the People Without Rights for ensemble with improvising soloist was performed by the Wuppertal Chamber Orchestra and Peter Brötzmann at the Wuppertal festival „Die 3. Art“. The Ensemble Modern, who had premiered his work Verdichtung at the Berlin festival „MaerzMusik 2002″, ordered a new version of the piece for Brötzmann, which was premiered in Frankfurt in April 2006. His chamber opera ATLAS was premiered in 2013. A second music theatre – DsHsdrKrnkhtn, in collaboration with double bassist Astrid Weins – followed at Garagenoper Festival in Berlin, January 2014. The „Musikalische Wirtshauskomödie“ Schwarze Bären, developed in collaboration with director Enrico Stolzenburg and author Kai-Ivo Baulitz, premiered at the German National Theatre in Weimar in May 2014. In 2019 a theatre music was created for the production WAND | LUNG by the touring theatre Figuro.
In the last two decades Eichmann has again been actively engaged in improvised music. During his first US tour in 2002, the successful duo work with American drummer Jeff Arnal began. The duo has performed at Goethe-Institut New York City, Antwerp concert hall deSingel, the Radio Bremen broadcasting hall, the Brooklyn Festival Improvised and Otherwise 2005, the Exploratorium Berlin and Rencontres musiques et littérature, Paris 2009. After a halt since 2012, the collaboration of this duet has been revived in 2023 and is newly exploring unknown musical territory. The Dietrich Eichmann Ensemble, with singer and electronics specialist Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson, saxophonist Chris Heenan, drummer Michael Griener, and the two double bass players Alexander Frangenheim and Christian Weber, was the first improvisation ensemble to make a guest appearance at the PGNM conference in Bremen in 2008, and broke new ground in „free improvisation“ in its collaboration with the London Art Rock duo Walter & Sabrina. Since 2012 several tours in Russia with the musicians Sergey Letov, Alexei Borisov and Vlady Bystrov. In 2021, he created the music for the ten-part radio play Rahel – Damit Sie mich kennen by Christine Nagel for the 250th birthday of Rahel Varnhagen.
As a teacher, Eichmann gave various workshops and courses on composition and improvisation at schools and boarding schools. He has designed extensive educational projects for institutions such as the University of the Arts and MaerzMusik, the Education Department of the Berlin Philharmonic, ohrenstrand.net and the Genshagen Foundation.
Eichmann held scholarships from the Darmstadt Summer Courses, one art Baden-Baden, the Heinrich Strobel Foundation of Südwestfunk, the Senate Department for Cultural Affairs Berlin, the International Music Omi Summer Residency, the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, the Contemporary Opera Berlin and was supported by „Berlin Composition Commissions“, GEMA-Stiftung, Deutscher Musikrat, and Kunststiftung Sachsen-Anhalt. In 2014/15 he was guest artist at the ZKM Karlsruhe. In 2017 he was granted a residency fellowship at the Herrenhaus Edenkoben.
Since 2018, he has been organising the concert series Neue Musik im Fläming (NMIF) in the countryside and neighbouring towns in the Fläming region, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. This concert series is attracting international attention.
His music is internationally documented by numerous radio recordings and record releases. Scores of his compositions are published at Edition Gravis / Verlag Neue Musik.
ANNETT ILIJEW
DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER AND EDITOR
Annett Ilijew was born and raised in East Berlin. From 2000 to 2007 she studied film editing at the Film University „Konrad Wolf“. She works as a director and editor for film and television projects. She occasionally works as a juror for film festivals.
Filmography / Documentary films as director:
FACING TIME, documentary film, 83 minutes, 2023 Portrait of the photographer Michael Ruetz Production: Annett Ilijew in co-production with RBB World premiere at the Dokfilmfest Munich 2023
SOMOS CUBA – WE ARE CUBA!, Germany 2015, 90 min, colour Co-production: Annett Ilijew / Saxonia Entertainment GmbH / WDR Festivals: Warsaw IFF 2015 | Festival dei Popoli Firence, Italy 2015 | Duisburger Filmwoche 2015 | PUCP Festival de Cine Lima, Peru 2016 | Vilnius Documentary Film Festival / VDFF, Lithuania 2016 | VII Moscow International Festival of Visual Anthropology, Russian Federation 2017 Project developed and made possible by the Bremen Documentary Film Award 2012 and a Gerd Ruge Project Grant 2013 Special Mention – Festival dei Popoli Firence, Italy 2015 | Best Cinematography – Achtung Berlin Filmfestival 2016 | Film Award of the Bayes Tribe Ânûû-rû Âboro Film Festival, New Caledonia 2016 | Nomination for the German Documentary Film Award 2017 http://www.somos-cuba-film.com/
WHEN I CRY, MY HEART BEATS Germany/ Romania 2008, 97 min Co-production: Annett Ilijew, HFF „Konrad Wolf“ and RBB President’s Award of the HFF „Konrad Wolf“ 2006 | Film Prize for Co-Productions of the Robert Bosch Foundation for the screenplay 2006 | Scholarship holder of the Young Academy of Arts in Berlin in the field of film and media art 2007, mentors: Michael Ruetz, Hans-Dieter Grabe | Babelsberg Media Prize 2008 (prize money invested in SOMOS CUBA) | Nomination for the First Steps Award 2008 | Various international and national festival screenings
MOSKATCHKA Deutschland/ Lettland 2005, 90 Min Rotterdam International Film Festival / Niederlande | 2005, Visions du Réel, Nyon / Schweiz | 2005, East Silver – Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Tschechische Republik | 2005, Duisburger Filmwoche, Deutschland | 2005, Festival dei Popoli, Florenz / Italien | 2006, Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, Taichung / Taiwan | 2006, Filmer à tout prix, Bruxelles / Belgien | 2006, Special Mention – Visions du Réel, Nyon 2005 / Schweiz | Special Jury Award – Yerevan International Film Festival „Golden Apricot“, Armenien 2005 | Gianpaolo Paoli Silver Plate für den besten ethnographisch-anthropologischen Dokumentarfilm – Festival dei Popoli, Florenz / Italien http://www.kino-kombat.com/films_moskatchka.html
TOMONORI TAKEDA
CLARINETTIST Contemporary and Classical Music
Born in 1985, Tomonori TAKEDA is a Japanese clarinetist based in Brussels. After graduating from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 2008, he studied in Paris at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional (CRR) d’Aubervilliers-La Courneuve with professor Alain Damiens (2008-2010) and at the Royal Conservatory Brussels (Flemish side) with professor Benjamin Dieltjens (2010-2012), where he obtained his master diploma with great distinction. He continued his study at the Conservatory Ghent following the advanced master course under the guidance of the Ensembles Ictus and Spectra, where he obtained the diploma in 2015. Especially passionated by contemporary music, Tomonori participated in the Ensemble Modern Summer Academy in 2010 and 2014, Lucerne Festival Academy in 2011 and 2012, and Lucerne Festival Academy Alumni Ensemble in 2017. He also participated in many rehearsals and concerts in the presence of composers such as Allain Gaussin, Michael Jarrell, Pierre Boulez, Dietrich Eichmann, Péter Eötvös, Heinz Holliger, Georges Aperghis, Philippe Manoury, Wolfgang Mitterer, Johannes Schöllhorn and Keiko Harada. Tomonori has been teaching Bass clarinet at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel since 2017 and he has been working as freelance with ensembles and orchestras such as Ictus Ensemble, I Solisti, Spectra Ensemble, Nadar Ensemble, Het Collectief, the Royal Flemish orchestra, Vlaams Opera, and the Royal Theatre of the Mint.
LILITH MAXION
PUPPETEER Performer of the moving screens for ENDE DES UNGESCHRIEBENEN
Lilith Maxion completed her training at the „Atelier für physisches Theater“ in Berlin and the diploma course „Zeitgenössische Puppenspielkunst“ at the HfS „Ernst Busch“. Together with Nathalie Wendt, she was represented at the following festivals with her play development „Lilith – Mutter der gemischten Vielzahl“: Szene-zeigen-Festival, Klippenspringer-Festival in Halle, Freisprung- Festival in Rostock. She has worked with the following directors, among others: Heiki Ikola, Jonas Knecht, Markus Joss, Petra Ratiu, Friederike Förster, Lena Katzer and Nathalie Wendt. Most recently, she appeared at the Koblenz Theatre in the production „Herr Fresssack und die Bremer Stadtmusikanten“ and at the Schaubude Berlin in „Hexe! Im FlammenMehr der Zeit“ at the Schaubude Berlin. In her own work, she was supported both in the solo research project „Perpetuum“ and in the play development of the family drama „ich weiß noch genau, wie es nicht war.“ was supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste. https://www.lilith-maxion.de/