Participating artists:Ksenia Bashmakova, Katharina Bayer, Minhye Chu, Christoph Gnädig, Till Hunger, Sijo Choi Kim, Haiguang Li, Yunseon Jeong, Franziska Koppmann, Theresa Münnich, Valério de Araújo Silva, Ingmar Stange, Yara Saleh, Adrian Q. Vardi, Iris Vermeulen, Amel Alzakout
Venue:Gewandhaus zu Leipzig
Augustusplatz 8
04109 Leipzig
www.gewandhausorchester.de
Partner:A cooperation between the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig and the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, class expanded cinema by Clemens von Wedemeyer and Mareike Bernien, initiated by the music education department of the Gewandhaus Orchestra
From 6.2.-13.2. 2022 the first part of the exhibition DSCH on the chamber music works of Dmitri Shostakovich took place in the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig. At the beginning of the exhibition was the idea to put the string quartets into a dialogue with artistic works of the HGB. To this end, the expanded cinema class of Clemens von Wedemeyer and Mareike Bernien developed cross-media and site-specific interventions that could be seen in two foyers and other locations parallel to the performances of the complete cycle of the string quartets.
On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation launched a war of aggression against Ukraine in violation of international law. In the last weeks we witnessed the most brutal war crimes on the part of the Russian army, the media-political isolation and repression of resistant voices within Russia. We vehemently condemn this war and stand in solidarity with the people in Ukraine who are forced to defend themselves or flee in the face of Russia's aggression.
The war makes the works of the second part of the exhibition DSCH read anew, and it also means a caesura for the individual work of each exhibitor. The repression Shostakovich faced as a composer under Stalin eerily resonates with contemporary practices of the Russian regime. Shostakovich's position at the time oscillated between accommodation to the Stalinist regime and the aesthetic-political subversion of socialist realism. The DSCH exhibition understands Shostakovich as an echolocation of his time and takes his music as a starting point for a polyphonic critical commentary that re-situates his music and relates it to other biographical spaces - especially those of students: What does it mean to sit anxious, powerless, or haunted on packed suitcases? How does language change when the obvious is not allowed to be said? How does the music of the Eighth Symphony sound next to private memory images from Syria? What musical voices have been obscured by Shostakovich's success? When does (classical) music itself again become an instrument that structures spaces of power and formats inclusions and exclusions in it?
Opening hours for visitors of the exhibition:
01.05.22, 3–6pm (concert starts at 6pm) - opening: 3pm
03.05.22, 1–8pm (concert starts at 8pm)
05.05.22, 1–8pm (concert starts at 8pm)
Admission to the exhibition is free. Tickets are required for subsequent concerts. The artists are present at times and are available for questions.
