Do we become who we are in the gaze of the other? This philosophical question is the driving force behind Myrtó Nizami’s Prima Materia project. She concludes her two-year stint as composer-in-residence of Festival Dag in de Branding with this final presentation. Working closely with soprano and performer Kristia Michael, Ensemble Modelo62, audio engineer Siavash Jafari and video artist Luca Tornato Serafini, Nizami undertakes an ingenious journey into the subconscious, with Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa as her guide. Behind every mask is a new mask, says Pessoa in his Sonnet VIII. Who am I really, if my identity is a matryoshka doll?
In previous editions of Dag in de Branding, Nizami showed intriguing intermediate results of her quest, the culmination of which is Prima Materia III, ‘The Last Mask’. Performer Kristia Michael plays two roles: she is both scientist (or narrator) and research object (the dreamer). Seated on a bed with a mosquito net that doubles as a projection screen, she descends into her deepest dreams, while simultaneously regarding herself.
Questions of identity are of all times but have taken on new meaning in our current world, in which the ubiquity of technology and media complicates perceptions of ourselves and reality. Constantly viewed and constantly drawing up different facades, we are a fragmentation bomb of ‘selves’ and yet we experience our identity as ‘whole’. ‘The Last Mask’ stages that disparity in a setting that is both a laboratory and a dream sequence.
As a supporting act, ensemble-in-residence SKETCH351 will present itself for the first time. SKETCH351 is a musicians’ ensemble dedicated to contemporary music and creation. As maker-in-residence for Dag in de Branding, the group will be presenting a small sample of their Fluxus-inspired playground – a performative original work that encompasses their reflections on the absurdity of daily life.