Henrik Colding-Jorgensen: Discourse With Time
Music for a peace powder magazine
(Diskurs Med Tiden)
(Musik
for Fredskrudtmagasin)
Introduction
- o -
Vestvolden
(The Western Rampart) lies today
as a multi-ambiguous paradox. The original ramparts with bare grass are now
covered by luxuriant wood; many parts of the edifice are in states of extensive
decay. The great - an in its own days formidable - rampart system was never
used in a war. Many of the brickwork and concrete structures lie underground,
mostly unnoticed.
Copenhagen was appointet European
Capital of Culture for the year of 1996. "Discourse With
Time" was part of "Operation
Vestvolden", an extensive
culture festival held June 15 to 23, 1996, by the municipality of Brøndby at the western outskirts of Copenhagen. The old
rampart system runs through Brondby on its way to the coast, and many of the
festival activities took place near an old "fredskrudtmagasin"
(peacetime gunpowder magazine), built into the inner slope of the rampart.
The front of the old peace powder magazine,
Brøndby, 1995. Before the project.
A subterranean cell, 1995. Before the project.
The intention of the
municipality of Brøndby was to show the historical and cultural past as well as
the contemporary wild and luxuriant nature, in a setting of a series of
artistic projects. "Operation Vestvolden" included expositions,
amateur theatre, guided tours and concerts.
"Discourse
With Time" was commissioned
as the musical part of a large installation project, with installations located
outdoors in the terrain and indoors in the vaults of the old peace powder
magazine. The installations were made by the three artists Jane Balsgaard, Vibeke Glarbo and
Suste Bonnén, and the music was composed by Henrik
Colding-Jørgensen as a web of relations between the installations and the
locations on the rampart and in the old powder magazine. The elements of the
composition were performed in the different rooms of the magazine and at
various outdoor locations near the installations. The six instruments started
together in the hall of the magazine and made their own independent way in the
vaults and outside on the rampart, ending in six different places. The audience
would walk around indoors and outdoors, following some musician or locating the
music by ear.
The music was performed
live at the opening of the festival and again two of the last days, including
St. Johns Eve, where it was performed before the traditional St. John's
bonfire. The duration of the composition is about half an hour, and before each
performance was played a fanfare - "Signal Vestvolden" for 4 trumpets - from above the facade of the magazine.
Signal Vestvolden, 1996
The sculptural
installations were not permanent, but were left for a few months after the
festival. During summer 1996 the installations in the magazine cells - and of
course the outdoor installations - were accessible to the public, and could be
experienced, some of them in varying states of decay. A studio recorded
collection of elements from "Discourse With Time" was played from
time to time in the magazine hall.
The Peace Powder Magazine, Brøndby, later (2006).
Copyright © 2017 H.
Colding-Jorgensen