#theovangogh — Public Fediverse posts

Theo Van Gogh: Portrait from the Year of His Murder and Its Impact on Dutch Society

📰 Original title: Portrait of Theo Van Gogh, Taken in 2004, Was Captured the Same Year He Was Murdered

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👥 Users: It's not clickbait ✅

View full AI summary: https://en.killbait.com/theo-van-gogh-portrait-from-the-year-of-his-murder-and-its-impact-on-dutch-society.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world

#society #theovangogh #freedomo...

Theo Van Gogh: Portrait from the Year of His Murder and Its Impact on Dutch Society

📰 Original title: Portrait of Theo Van Gogh, Taken in 2004, Was Captured the Same Year He Was Murdered

🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Users: It's not clickbait ✅

View full AI summary: https://en.killbait.com/theo-van-gogh-portrait-from-the-year-of-his-murder-and-its-impact-on-dutch-society.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world

#society #theovangogh #freedomo...

Theo Van Gogh: Portrait from the Year of His Murder and Its Impact on Dutch Society

📰 Original title: Portrait of Theo Van Gogh, Taken in 2004, Was Captured the Same Year He Was Murdered

🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Users: It's not clickbait ✅

View full AI summary: https://en.killbait.com/theo-van-gogh-portrait-from-the-year-of-his-murder-and-its-impact-on-dutch-society.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world

#society #theovangogh #freedomo...

Theo Van Gogh: Portrait from the Year of His Murder and Its Impact on Dutch Society

📰 Original title: Portrait of Theo Van Gogh, Taken in 2004, Was Captured the Same Year He Was Murdered

🤖 IA: It's not clickbait ✅
👥 Users: It's not clickbait ✅

View full AI summary: https://en.killbait.com/theo-van-gogh-portrait-from-the-year-of-his-murder-and-its-impact-on-dutch-society.html?utm_source=mastodon_social&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_social

#society #theovangogh #freedo...

https://www.europesays.com/ie/337085/ These Vincent Van Gogh Truthers Think the Artist’s Suicide Was a Cover-up for Murder #Arts #ArtsAndDesign #ArtsAndDesign #ArtsDesign #CamillePissarro #DenverArtMuseum #Design #DrPaulFerdinandGachet #Éire #Entertainment #GregoryWhiteSmith #IE #Ireland #IrvArenberg #KillingVincent #KirkDouglas #LovingVincent #LustForLife #MargueriteGachet #PaulCzanne #PaulGachetJr #StarryNight #StevenNaifeh #TeioMeedendorp #TheoVanGogh #VanGoghAcademy #VincentVanGogh #WouterVanDerVeen

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗴𝗵 20 𝗷𝗮𝗮𝗿 𝗻𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗺

Twintig jaar na de moord op filmmaker Theo van Gogh zijn er zaterdag herdenkingen in Amsterdam. Op 2 november 2004 werd de regisseur en opiniemaker op klaarlichte dag vermoord door Mohammed B. in de Linnaeusstraat in Amsterdam-Oost. Onder meer op de plek van de moord, in het Oosterpark en in De Balie zijn er...

https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5478430/theo-van-gogh-20-jaar-na-moord-herdacht-amsterdam

#TheoVanGogh #moord #herdacht

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗴𝗵 20 𝗷𝗮𝗮𝗿 𝗻𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗺

Twintig jaar na de moord op filmmaker Theo van Gogh zijn er zaterdag herdenkingen in Amsterdam. Op 2 november 2004 werd de regisseur en opiniemaker op klaarlichte dag vermoord door Mohammed B. in de Linnaeusstraat in Amsterdam-Oost. Onder meer op de plek van de moord, in het Oosterpark en in De Balie zijn er...

https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5478430/theo-van-gogh-20-jaar-na-moord-herdacht-amsterdam

#TheoVanGogh #moord #herdacht

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗴𝗵 20 𝗷𝗮𝗮𝗿 𝗻𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗺

Twintig jaar na de moord op filmmaker Theo van Gogh zijn er zaterdag herdenkingen in Amsterdam. Op 2 november 2004 werd de regisseur en opiniemaker op klaarlichte dag vermoord door Mohammed B. in de Linnaeusstraat in Amsterdam-Oost. Onder meer op de plek van de moord, in het Oosterpark en in De Balie zijn er...

https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5478430/theo-van-gogh-20-jaar-na-moord-herdacht-amsterdam

#TheoVanGogh #moord #herdacht

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗴𝗵 20 𝗷𝗮𝗮𝗿 𝗻𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗺

Twintig jaar na de moord op filmmaker Theo van Gogh zijn er zaterdag herdenkingen in Amsterdam. Op 2 november 2004 werd de regisseur en opiniemaker op klaarlichte dag vermoord door Mohammed B. in de Linnaeusstraat in Amsterdam-Oost. Onder meer op de plek van de moord, in het Oosterpark en in De Balie zijn er...

https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5478430/theo-van-gogh-20-jaar-na-moord-herdacht-amsterdam

#TheoVanGogh #moord #herdacht

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗴𝗵 20 𝗷𝗮𝗮𝗿 𝗻𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗺

Twintig jaar na de moord op filmmaker Theo van Gogh zijn er zaterdag herdenkingen in Amsterdam. Op 2 november 2004 werd de regisseur en opiniemaker op klaarlichte dag vermoord door Mohammed B. in de Linnaeusstraat in Amsterdam-Oost. Onder meer op de plek van de moord, in het Oosterpark en in De Balie zijn er...

https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5478430/theo-van-gogh-20-jaar-na-moord-herdacht-amsterdam

#TheoVanGogh #moord #herdacht

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗴𝗵 𝗼𝗽 2 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝗶𝗱𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗶𝗻

Filmmaker Theo van Gogh wordt op zaterdag 2 november herdacht op het Leidseplein in Amsterdam. Het is op die dag precies twintig jaar geleden dat de regisseur en opiniemaker werd vermoord door Mohammed B.

https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5476467/theo-van-gogh-op-2-november-herdacht-op-leidseplein

#TheoVanGogh #Herdacht #Leidseplein

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗴𝗵 𝗼𝗽 2 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝗶𝗱𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗶𝗻

Filmmaker Theo van Gogh wordt op zaterdag 2 november herdacht op het Leidseplein in Amsterdam. Het is op die dag precies twintig jaar geleden dat de regisseur en opiniemaker werd vermoord door Mohammed B.

https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5476467/theo-van-gogh-op-2-november-herdacht-op-leidseplein

#TheoVanGogh #Herdacht #Leidseplein

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗴𝗵 𝗼𝗽 2 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝗶𝗱𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗶𝗻

Filmmaker Theo van Gogh wordt op zaterdag 2 november herdacht op het Leidseplein in Amsterdam. Het is op die dag precies twintig jaar geleden dat de regisseur en opiniemaker werd vermoord door Mohammed B.

https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5476467/theo-van-gogh-op-2-november-herdacht-op-leidseplein

#TheoVanGogh #Herdacht #Leidseplein

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗴𝗵 𝗼𝗽 2 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝗶𝗱𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗶𝗻

Filmmaker Theo van Gogh wordt op zaterdag 2 november herdacht op het Leidseplein in Amsterdam. Het is op die dag precies twintig jaar geleden dat de regisseur en opiniemaker werd vermoord door Mohammed B.

https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5476467/theo-van-gogh-op-2-november-herdacht-op-leidseplein

#TheoVanGogh #Herdacht #Leidseplein

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼 𝘃𝗮𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗴𝗵 𝗼𝗽 2 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝗶𝗱𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗶𝗻

Filmmaker Theo van Gogh wordt op zaterdag 2 november herdacht op het Leidseplein in Amsterdam. Het is op die dag precies twintig jaar geleden dat de regisseur en opiniemaker werd vermoord door Mohammed B.

https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5476467/theo-van-gogh-op-2-november-herdacht-op-leidseplein

#TheoVanGogh #Herdacht #Leidseplein

#KaikenTakanaOnNainen!

#VincentVanGogh nousi tunnettuuteen vasta kuolemansa jälkeen. Ja vasta veljensä #TheoVanGogh in kuoleman jälkeen. Vaikka Theo yritti koko uransa nostaa #Vincent in kuuluisuuteen.

Lopulta sen teki Theon leski #JohannaVanGoghBonger.

Tämä hautautui kuitenkin historiaan, kuten monien naisten ansiot.

Vuonna 2009 #vanGogh museo sai Johannan kirjoitukset, ja hänen merkityksensä nousi esiin.

#katselusuositus #dokkari #dokumentti #taide #kuvataide

https://arenan.yle.fi/1-66611860

#KaikenTakanaOnNainen!

#VincentVanGogh nousi tunnettuuteen vasta kuolemansa jälkeen. Ja vasta veljensä #TheoVanGogh in kuoleman jälkeen. Vaikka Theo yritti koko uransa nostaa #Vincent in kuuluisuuteen.

Lopulta sen teki Theon leski #JohannaVanGoghBonger.

Tämä hautautui kuitenkin historiaan, kuten monien naisten ansiot.

Vuonna 2009 #vanGogh museo sai Johannan kirjoitukset, ja hänen merkityksensä nousi esiin.

#katselusuositus #dokkari #dokumentti #taide #kuvataide

https://arenan.yle.fi/1-66611860

#KaikenTakanaOnNainen!

#VincentVanGogh nousi tunnettuuteen vasta kuolemansa jälkeen. Ja vasta veljensä #TheoVanGogh in kuoleman jälkeen. Vaikka Theo yritti koko uransa nostaa #Vincent in kuuluisuuteen.

Lopulta sen teki Theon leski #JohannaVanGoghBonger.

Tämä hautautui kuitenkin historiaan, kuten monien naisten ansiot.

Vuonna 2009 #vanGogh museo sai Johannan kirjoitukset, ja hänen merkityksensä nousi esiin.

#katselusuositus #dokkari #dokumentti #taide #kuvataide

https://arenan.yle.fi/1-66611860

#KaikenTakanaOnNainen!

#VincentVanGogh nousi tunnettuuteen vasta kuolemansa jälkeen. Ja vasta veljensä #TheoVanGogh in kuoleman jälkeen. Vaikka Theo yritti koko uransa nostaa #Vincent in kuuluisuuteen.

Lopulta sen teki Theon leski #JohannaVanGoghBonger.

Tämä hautautui kuitenkin historiaan, kuten monien naisten ansiot.

Vuonna 2009 #vanGogh museo sai Johannan kirjoitukset, ja hänen merkityksensä nousi esiin.

#katselusuositus #dokkari #dokumentti #taide #kuvataide

https://arenan.yle.fi/1-66611860

#KaikenTakanaOnNainen!

#VincentVanGogh nousi tunnettuuteen vasta kuolemansa jälkeen. Ja vasta veljensä #TheoVanGogh in kuoleman jälkeen. Vaikka Theo yritti koko uransa nostaa #Vincent in kuuluisuuteen.

Lopulta sen teki Theon leski #JohannaVanGoghBonger.

Tämä hautautui kuitenkin historiaan, kuten monien naisten ansiot.

Vuonna 2009 #vanGogh museo sai Johannan kirjoitukset, ja hänen merkityksensä nousi esiin.

#katselusuositus #dokkari #dokumentti #taide #kuvataide

https://arenan.yle.fi/1-66611860

RT @[email protected]

18 jaar geleden, vermoord om je uitgesproken mening. Opdat wij niet vergeten. #TheoVanGogh

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/aaaa70caro/status/1587779523285843968

Huba de Graaff: ‘Art must be provocative’ #HF17

The artist duo Gilbert & George had travelled to Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg to witness a spitting image impersonation by Christopher (countertenor) & Nigel Robson (tenor) in The Naked Shit Songs by Dutch composer Huba de Graaff. She based her opera on a literal transcript of a television interview Theo van Gogh had with Gilbert & George in 1996. It was premièred in the Holland Festival to great acclaim on Thursday 22 June, and can be heard there once more on Friday 23 June.

I interviewed De Graaff for the programme book, and for a pre concert talk (it was streamed live, see below).

In 1969 Huba de Graaff saw Gilbert & George posed as living sculptures on the stairs of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, in 1996 she perused their Naked Shit Pictures in the same venue. Now she presents her opera The Naked Shit Songs, based on an interview of Theo van Gogh with the artists about this controversial exhibition. De Graaff: ‘Art must be provocative.’

Huba de Graaff (Amsterdam, 1959) operates somewhat in the margin of Dutch musical life, creating music theatre on a wide variety of subjects most people would not readily associate with opera. Electronics and visuals are a given, often examining the relation between man and machine. In her opera Lautsprecher Arnolt (2003) the main roles are performed by loudspeakers; in The Death of Poppaea (2006) cameras abound; in Liebesleid (2017) a woman trains off her lovesickness, panting and puffing away during a fierce workout in a fitness centre.

Apera

A recurrent theme is the relation between speech and song. De Graaff: ‘To me it’s clear that singing came first, and that our spoken language developed from this over a long period of time. This is not only evidenced by the tone languages that have survived to this day, but also by the fact that both children and demented elderly people sing. Singing makes it easier for us to remember and cherish important events.’

To prove her point De Graaff studied the way monkeys communicate, basing her Apera (2013) on her findings: ‘Surprisingly their shrieks and shouts at times come very close to renaissance polyphony.’ She went a step further in Pornopera (2015), crafting the libretto from the lustful moaning and groaning of a copulating couple. Or, in her own words: ‘everything that happens with your voice BEFORE you start singing’. In The Naked Shit Songs she approaches the theme from the opposite angle: ‘I call it a “retropera”, because now I’m turning spoken language into song.’

Television interview on Naked Shit Pictures

The idea for the opera was suggested by the actor/singer Jan Elbertse, with whom she had worked before. ‘In 1996 he had videotaped a television interview from Theo van Gogh with Gilbert & George on their exhibition The Naked Shit Pictures. I am a great admirer of theirs, and was fascinated by how light-heartedly they discuss precarious themes such as love, tolerance, homosexuality and Islam. I decided to set the entire interview to music, including all the repetitions, hesitations and slips of the tongue. It took me a month to type everything out.’

Van Gogh was controversial because he was a thoroughbred provocateur, openly ranting against Islamic people, sometimes even calling them backward goatfuckers. De Graaff: ‘I absolutely abhor such aggressive statements. Fortunately he refrained from them in his talk with Gilbert & George, for he was a great interviewer. He asked the right questions, putting his guests at ease while avidly smoking cigarette after cigarette.

You see Gilbert & George gradually relax, even becoming a bit tipsy in the end. I was struck by how much our world has changed since 1996. Nowadays it’s unthinkable anyone would smoke or drink alcohol on television, let alone innocently address politically incorrect subjects. Since 9/11 and the assassination of Theo in 2004 the Western world has completely lost its innocence.’

Art must ask questions

While working on the typescript her already high esteem for Gilbert & George intensified: ‘I love their motto “Art is for all”, and how they keep stressing their work should be understandable to taxi-drivers and children. With this in mind I composed very singable melodies.

I’m also impressed by their immense love and tolerance toward mankind. Especially striking is their reiterated praise for Islam, referring to it as a religion of love. They call themselves Christian artists, though admitting to being “very unchristian” and fearing Christian fundamentalists. Thus they continuously raise uneasy issues, which to me is the essence of art: it must ask questions and be provocative.’

Gentlemen showing their arses

Gilbert & George are usually immaculately dressed, but in their Naked Shit Pictures the purebred British gentlemen relentlessly expose their bare buttocks and create images from their own excrements. De Graaff: ‘This inspired me to design a “turd-theme’, a bass run that keeps popping up in different guises, while my musical structure mirrors how they model their turds into strict but florid and beautiful frameworks.’

The Naked Shit Songs has six movements, each comprising exactly a thousand words, preceded by a prologue of fifty and concluded with an epilogue of seventy-five words. This layout may seem haphazard and rational, but was consciously chosen. De Graaff: ‘Thus I avoided for my opera to become kitschy, for it could easily have turned into a mere succession of jaunty songs. Shaping my material into a tough structure made it possible to introduce a new version of the theme with each subdivision.’

Choir doubles Gilbert & George

The first part is spoken, only after a thousand words Gilbert & George burst into song. De Graaff: ‘They start on a scream that follows their explanation of how they make their images: …we go into a black bag. And inside this bag we shout: Aaaaaah! Halfway through also Theo starts singing. They are accompanied by a musical ensemble of double bass, piano, synthesizer, electric guitar and percussion, and a choir that doubles their lines or interjects its own comments. For this I engaged the GALA-Choir, consisting of gay and lesbian singers.’

Because of the frequent references to Islam, the composer was convinced she also needed a choir with a Muslim background. This proved less simple to realise than she’d thought: ‘I have many Kurdish friends who drink alcohol and come to see my opera’s. They were not daunted by Apera or Pornopera and responded enthusiastically when I told them about my Naked Shit Songs.

‘Muslim choir’

Some of them were even willing to sing in the ‘Muslim choir’, yet after reading the libretto they demurred. They condemn Theo’s murder as a matter of course, but it’s one thing to be open-minded and another to ignore how deeply he had offended the Quran. I had underestimated the pressure they feared to encounter from the Islamic community. At the time of the interview there was still a dialogue, now everyone is continuously walking on eggshells.’

Precisely for this reason she became even more determined: ‘In these troubled times dialogue is absolutely indispensable, on all possible levels. So I vented my disappointment to my local Turkish grocer: Why can’t I find a Muslim choir? This proved to be a stroke of luck. He suggested contacting Selim Dogru, a Turkish-Dutch composer who leads the reART World Music Choir. Selim at once agreed to take part in my opera, as did his singers, who all read the manuscript closely. They know exactly what it’s about and consider it an important project.’

The ‘Muslim choir’ enters towards the end of the opera, where the murder of Van Gogh is subtly suggested. De Graaff: ‘An electric guitar solo sets in. Gilbert sings: It’s finished, it’s dead. Theo gets up and leaves the table. Pandemonium breaks loose. Wham! Wham! Wham! The choir belts out: money, race, sex, religion, while Gilbert & George once more stress how kind Muslims are.

In the end we shortly hear Theo’s real voice: So that’s why you love to be surrounded by Muslim people? Then things quieten down, and everyone sings along with the ‘Muslim choir’: Imagine the lives of all the people at this moment in the world, wherever they are. These were George’s last words in the interview. It’s such a powerful and soothing text, but each time I hear it I get goose bumps, for we all know what happened hereafter.*

*Theo van Gogh was brutally murdered by an islam fundamentalist on 2 November 2004

My pre concert talk with Huba de Graaff was streamed live on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L_k7KjQsG8

On 21 June 2021 Huba de Graaff got the Buma Classical Lifetime Achievement Award in TivoliVredenburg Utrecht, in the final concert of the event ‘Dag van de componist’.The prize is an intiative of New Music Now NL and BumaStemra.

I had the honour of presenting the award to Huba. I praised her originality and rebelliousness, and compared her to the Dutch artist Wim T. Schippers, who had passed away a week before

Holland Festival 2017: democracy, Indonesia, women composers

The coming edition of the Holland Festival, running from 3 to 25 June, features 33 Dutch premières and 17 world premières. The festival celebrates its 70th birthday with an unwavering commitment to the arts.

During the presentation in the Amsterdam Bimhuis on Tuesday 7 February Annet Lekkerkerker, director of the festival, quoted Henk Reinink, one of its founders: ‘We initiate this festival in order to realize something great with joint forces.’

From spectators to ‘introspectors’

This was in 1947. Lekkerkerker stressed that seven decades later this mission statement is still in full force. ‘Shortly after World War II people acknowledged the importance of the arts.’ Unfortunately this is no longer a given in these troubled times, where all former certainties seem to be under attack from populist forces. Lekkerkerker, however, insists: ‘Art forms an essential and indispensable part of our lives. It broadens our perspective and turns spectators into “introspectors”.’

Democracy

The festival has two main themes. The first one is highly topical: democracy in all its different aspects, with eye-catching events such as The Nation, a theatrical thriller about tensions in the ‘multi-culti’ Netherlands by Eric de Vroedt; My Country, a production of the British National Theatre on the Brexit; Octavia. Trepanation, a new opera of Dmitri Kourliandski investigating the mechanisms of the Russian Revolution in 2017, and La Democrazia in America in which Romeo Castelucci probes the function of theatre.

Contemporary music from Indonesia

The second theme is Indonesia, the former Dutch colony that was only granted its independence in 1949, after fierce struggles and under international pressure. Even today Indonesia is a sore point in Holland, where relatives of the train hijackers that were brutally killed in 1977 are still fighting for justice.

To this day Indonesia is often mainly viewed from a colonial perspective, but the festival chooses to zoom in on contemporary art from the sprawling archipelago. ‘A Night in Indonesia’ presents a five hour long mini-festival in the famous pop venue Paradiso on 16 June.

It features underground bands combining elements from traditional Indonesian music with pop, rock, folk, noise and/or electronics.’ The duo Boi Akih of jazz singer Monica Akihary and guitarist Niels Brouwer will première Controlling the Swing, commissioned by the Holland Festival.

The next day Ensemble Modern presents Ruang Suara in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, showcasing music from young Indonesian composers that was crafted in close cooperation with the Germans.

In the infectiously Dah-Dha-Dah by Gema Swaratyagita, the musicians only seem to fill the stage in passing, producing weird & crazy sounds along with purely musical ones. Swaratyagita herself has a vocal part and plays the suling, an Indonesian recorder.

Religions without borders

The Dutch-Indonesian composer Sinta Wullur will realize Temple of Time. She specially designed it for the Holland Festival Proms in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw on 24 June. Audience and musicians are encircled by 84 gongs from Wullur’s chromatic gamelan.

The gong players and eight vocalists from different religious traditions will perform both traditional and newly composed music. The texts are based on ancient sacred texts from the four world religions about the passage of time.

At the presentation Wullur mentioned that while at school in Indonesia, her religious classes were evenly dedicated to Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism and Islam. Librettist Miranda Lakerveld pointed out that this seems less obvious today, considering how difficult it was to find appropriate religious texts that both respect tradition and avoid sensitivities.

Sacred grounds

The Proms also feature the world première of Sacred Environment, a collaboration between the Australian-Dutch composer Kate Moore and visual artist Ruben van Leer. In this oratorio the singer Alex Oomens makes a trip to Hunter Valley in virtual reality, the audience following her to the temple on the sacred grounds of the Australian Wonnarua and Darkinjung tribes.

Theo van Gogh meets Gilbert & George

I look especially forward to Huba de Graaff’s music theatre piece The Naked Shit Songs. It is based on an interview of Theo van Gogh with the British artists Gilbert and George in 1996. The discussion addresses such diverse themes as art, sex and religion, Muslims, fundamentalism and death.

Huba de Graaff set the (almost) complete interview to music. This is the more poignant since Van Gogh – who was very outspoken and straightforward on controversial issues – was murdered by an Islamic fundamentalist in 2004.

As is its wont the Holland Festival chooses to walk untrodden paths. Not only does it address topical themes, but it also prominently features  women composers, still too often overlooked in regular concert programmes. It can only be hoped they won’t again be forgotten when artistic director Ruth Mackenzie leaves for Paris in 2019.

#HF17 #AnnetLekkerkerker #GemaSwaratyagita #GilbertGeorge #HollandFestival #KateMoore #MonicaAkihary #RomeoCastelucci #RuthMackenzie #SintaWullur #TempleOfTime #TheoVanGogh