CESSE Concerts / Csaba Hajnóczy and Lenke Szilágyi / FROM SEA TO THE RIVER TO THE SEA / An installation of sounds and photographs
19:30 – 20:05 / 30.11.2018. / SSI
Political activism was not my inspiration to visit the Middle East. My point was to step out of my comfort zone. The Palestinian Territories have been all over life a No Go Zone for me. Suddenly I became interested, how living would be possible in a place, which has always been mentioned in the bad news over the past half century.
Political activism was not my inspiration to visit the Middle East. My point was to step out of my comfort zone. The Palestinian Territories have been all over life a No Go Zone for me. Suddenly I became interested, how living would be possible in a place, which has always been mentioned in the bad news over the past half century.
Soon I realized, that there is no Palestine without Israel, simply because it is occupied by Israel. So I decided to deal with Israel too, despite the State of Israel is not a “discomfort zone”.
The concept was to work with field recordings and still images. I have been honoured to be accompanied in this expedition by photographer Lenke Szilágyi, who did not hesitate to join me and be my inspirative and faithful collaborator while preparing, on spot, and during all editing and post-production works.
Our leading thread became water. Arabic: ماء (mayy). Hebrew: מים (mahyeem). We decided to follow narratives concerning water – actually a central issue since Biblical times and even earlier. The Holy Waters of the Holy Land. The crops grown by water. Who rules over water. Shortage of water. The beauties and wonders of water.
The expressions “From Sea to Sea”, or “From the River to the Sea”, speak about – seemingly irreconcilable – political wills and intentions, while hydrogeologically the territory between the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, River Jordan and the Mediterranian Sea, whoever resides or reigns it, is one indivisible whole. We tried to expose our experiences and impressions by vision and sound in an almost diary-like way, 10 episodes of which will be presented in this performance.
As far as sound design is concerned, I was extremely happy to have the possibility to develope my ideas by the unique system of Spatial Sound Institute during my short residency. 4D sound system gave me opportunities for stage-like composing. Like the medium of poliphonic music in a classical opera can give room for a number of actresses/actors singing different aspects of a story, simultaneously, in a meaningful unity (which would be meaningless turmoil in verbal theater), this system can give space for a virtual unity of sounds, coming from various sources and manipulated differently, in an extensive narrative.
All the photographs and audio recordings were made at the Palestinian Territories and the State of Israel between the 4th and 29th November 2017. The presentation is Csaba Hajnóczy’s DLA masterwork at Moholy-Nagy University of Arts Budapest.
Photo: Lenke Szilágyi