Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson

At the Kunsthalle for Music in Witte de With, curated and created by artist-composer Ari Benjamin Meyers with director of Witte de With, Defne Ayas, the artists Libia and Ólafur have presented a new commission; A music composition, performance and installation developed through an on-site workshop with the ensemble of the KfM. During the workshop the group addressed various ideas on nationalism and internationalism.

The exercise involved using scores of the national anthems of their native countries and of the countries of the staff of Witte de With, and randomly and subjectively re-assembling them into sculptural mobiles that served as musical scores, to be performed by the Ensemble. The audience was welcome to take part in the cut-up process and the discussions prior to starting the performances and prior to the figuring out of how to play the score-mobiles and of how to develop spatial choreographies within the installation.

The score mobiles are a new sculptural and musical devise invented by Libia and Ólafur, in order to compose music and to work with indeterminacy, originated by movement influenced by the movement of the bodies in the space, performers and visitors a like. The sculptural objects are a carrier of content meant to be used as a devise to play and create musical compositions. The work being a visual and spatial installation, that is put off by the performers when they stop playing- leaving the score-mobiles down flat as minimal sculptures on the ground and put on by pulling the scores up when the music is being performed.