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CURATORIAL WORK with CATHERINE CHRISTER HENNIX by Kirsten Palz.


Maerzmusik, 2017.
https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de

In 2016, I took contact to Christer with the wish to curate 'The Electric Harpsichord' - first performed in 1976 in Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Christer and I share a love for music, mathematics and the conceptual arts.


'On Architecture as an Instrument' is written by Kirsten Palz as part of the catalogue for Maerzmusik 2017. 



On Architecture as Instrument.

Since the 1970s Catherine Christer Hennix has conceived her sound compositions in close relation to the spatial environments they were performed in. The architectural and acoustic qualities of a space hereby define a principal element for the music and site specific installations. This relation points to Hennix’s concept of sound as an immanent property of physical space, conceiving it as an instrument that can be tuned and played.

This notable characteristic of Hennix’s spatial consciousness combined with her interest in mathematics makes the Kuppelhalle in the former crematorium in Wedding an interesting environment for the concert.

The Kuppelhalle is a unique vaulted space above an octagon shaped floor-plan covered with black stone tiling. It has a floor area of 200 m2 and a 17.0 m high ceiling under which two all-round balconies are located, formerly used to access a succession of wall cavities for urns.

In a period of seven-days before the first concert on 16. March 2017 the musicians, technicians and Catherine Christer Hennix will collectively fine tune space and composition. This fine-tuning of the sound during rehearsal and technical adjustment is essential for the acoustic interweaving of brass instruments, voice, computer programming and space.

The Kuppelhalle has been set up for eight musicians, instruments, equipment for sound and projection and an audience. Hereby a sensitive instrument is created involving musicians and listeners alike.

In Catherine Christer Hennix’s owns words: “My idea is that we become one instrument with the space”.


Hereby sound becomes a quality of space rather than time.