Chiming Shadows. A Musical Sleepwalk with Alliksaar’s Poetry
The exhibition is open from 27 September 2024 to 15 January 2025The exhibition Chiming Shadows. A Musical Sleepwalk with Alliksaar’s Poetry is an experience hall of the Estonian National Museum that is a part of its large exhibition about the night, allowing the visitor to walk around with their eyes open and play with the fragments they would otherwise miss when asleep at night.
The material of the exhibition is part of the musical theatre piece They Went and Planted the Seeds of Shadows Because the Light Started to Sprout, which premiered in 2016 and dealt with the theme of night through the poetry of Artur Alliksaar and the original music of Ardo Ran Varres. The piece was directed by Liis Kolle, lighting design done by Oliver Kulpsoo, costumes by Reili Evart, and performed by Yxus Ensemble and soloists.
We take you to a world of light and lightlessness, of shadows, flashes, nighttime sounds, dreams, visions, and nightmares. Each dream is of a different length, depth, weight, and character. The visitor can take part in the shadow theatre, dream in multicolour, feel like a sleepwalker, become the Queen of the Night, create music of the night, play with light, and await the sunrise. In the middle of the hall, there are comfortable reclining chairs, in which visitors can see exclusive clips from the musical theatre piece, which was performed only twice, along with original sound. This area is surrounded by a horizon of shadows, where other visitors add their own.
While at the performance, the audience got to experience an hour of sleep completely wide-eyed and sitting down, then the visitor of the exhibition can decide which phase of the night they wish to spend more time in and which phase to pass through faster, perhaps to come back. For us, the creators, such a transformation of a work of art from one genre to another, from the temporal to the spatial dimension, is interesting and fun, while hoping that the experiencer finds recognition and new aesthetic discoveries. As the surrealist poetry of Artur Alliksaar can be heard both spoken and sung in the sound design of the experience, this exhibition is also an homage to the poet of Tartu in celebration of his centenary.
What happens to us when we are not awake? Are we tied by a sort of invisible togetherness, or does each individual dissolve into an infinite solitude? Come see the exhibition and find out.
Viiulid mängivad.
Varjude viiulid.
Viiulite varjud.
Kuhu lendasid muistsete linnuste linnud?
Helid varisevad.
Varjud helisevad.
Taevas on tulisulis.
Hommik on verisulis.
Miks sa oigad unede vahele, naeru vulisev oja?
Viiulid on täis taevast.
Taevas on täis viiuleid.
Silmad voolavad sihitult siia-sinna.
Pisarad purskuvad põlema.
Öö kannab kärbinahast käpikkindaid ja läbipaistvat purpurpunast salli.
(A passage from ‘Cata-strophes’, a poem by Artur Alliksaar)
Team:
Curators: Liis Kolle, Ardo Ran Varres
Sound design: Ardo Ran Varres
Costumes and design graphics: Raili Evart
Space and light: Oliver Kulpsoo