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THE SAND CHILD / 2007

THE SAND CHILD

A Project of Transformation

2007



View All Performances

Credits
PARTICIPANTS

Performers Maria Rich, Aino Junka, Anne Christine Bech, Christine Pettersen
Singers Mark Linn, MC Jabber, Harun Ates

Concept, installation, direction Kirsten Dehlholm, Ralf Richardt Strøbech
Music T.S. Høeg
Film Joachim Hamou
Texts Tahar Ben Jelloun, Michael Valeur and other texts.

Light design Sonja Lea
Sound design Anders Jørgensen
Audio controller Troels Bech
Costumes Siri Vilbøl
Performance manager Lise Klitten
Production manager Jesper Sønderstrup

Reviews
Berlingske Tidende
Using the masterly novels The Sand Child and The Sacred Night by the
Moroccan/French writer Tahar Ben Jelloun as its starting point, Hotel Pro Forma’s new performance questions gender and identity in the Western world.

Read the full review here

Jyllandsposten
A major strength of The Sand Child lies in the incredibly unerring and strong visual expressive power. The stage as such resembles a newly
designed interior at a museum of modern art, i.e. with a number of installations that could just as well cope on their own – without any
dramatics and music.

Read the full review here

First performances
22 February – 14 March 2007, Mogens Dahl Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark

His idea was simple, difficult to realize, to hold on to in all its power: The child to be born will be a boy, even though it is a girl.
– 
Tahar Ben Jelloun
 
A house and a book. A text and a context.
 
In a new house with white rooms we meet the sand child. The Sand Child, is the recurring figure in Hotel Pro Forma’s new performance. A child of sand is no fixed creation. It is formed by the outer world but retains is basic material as substance.
 
In the writer Tahar Ben Jelloun’s two books The Sand Child, and The Sacred Night the same life story is portrayed in many guises. A child is born as a girl but, in accordance with her father’s will, is brought up as a boy among seven sisters. As an adult, the actions and personality of the main character change via alternating narrative voices that provide different versions of the same life.
 
In the performance The Sand Child, Hotel Pro Forma adds other narrative voices, all of which relate the story of the sand child in their different ways. The new narrators are the sand child’s seven sisters, who appear in the performance as seven present-day women – seven living talents. They are presented via their CVs and brief personal statements. They blend with the sand child, colouring and emphasising her life story. Other narrators are three male singers, who with their distinctive voices sing the poetic track.
 
Altogether, the texts and songs tell of a lived life, of possibilities and destiny, of talent. Of how everything is part of a context. The context is a field of possibility and a conceptual framework. The Sand Child tells of the experience of adaptation and change as a life-condition in modern life.
The Sand Child, is a performance and an art installation rolled into one, specially created for the Mogens Dahl Instituttet venue, where the audience can move freely between two rooms: the music room and the text room. In the text room three female performers offer three personifications of the sand child and also appear as the seven sisters. Film, images, sound and gleaming objects constantly alter the nature of the room. A female narrator links the text room with the music room.
 
The composer T.S. Høeg has created the 135 minutes of instrumental music for the performance as well as 11 songs for three voices: a countertenor, a soul vocalist and a rapper. They sing both separately and together, alternating with short and long instrumental passages. They perform in the music room, but their voices can also be heard in the text room – as music from a different world where ethereal beauty, meta-pop blues and hard-groove unite.




Duration 135 min. no intermission


Danish
SANDBARNET
Et forandringsprojekt
2007

Hans idé var enkel, svær at føre ud i livet, at holde fast i al dens kraft: Det barn der skal fødes bliver en dreng, selvom det er en pige.

– Tahar Ben Jelloun
 
En bog og et hus. En tekst og en kontekst.
 
Sandbarnet er den gennemgående figur i forestillingen. Et barn af sand er ingen fast skabning. Det formes af den ydre verden, men bevarer sit grundmateriale som substans.
 
I forfatteren Tahar Ben Jellouns to bøger Sandbarnet og Den hellige nat optræder det samme livsforløb i mange forklædninger. Et barn fødes som pige, men vokser efter sin fars vilje op som en dreng mellem syv søstre. Som voksen ændrer hovedpersonens handlinger og personlighed karakter gennem skiftende fortællerstemmer, der giver forskellige versioner af det samme liv.
 
I forestillingen Sandbarnet tilføjer Hotel Pro Forma andre fortæller-stemmer, der alle beretter om sandbarnet på hver sin måde. De nye fortællere er sandbarnets syv søstre, der i forestillingen optræder som syv nulevende kvinder, syv nutidige talenter. De præsenteres gennem deres CV´er og korte personlige udsagn. De blander sig med sandbarnet, farver og betoner dets livsforløb.

Andre fortællere er tre mandlige sangere, der med markante stemmer synger de poetiske spor.
 
Tilsammen fortæller teksterne og sangene om levede liv, om muligheder og skæbne, om talent. Om hvordan alt indgår i en kontekst. Konteksten er et mulighedsfelt og en forståelsesramme. Sandbarnet fortæller om oplevelsen af tilpasning og forandring som et livsvilkår i det moderne liv.
 
Sandbarnet er forestilling og kunstinstallation i ét, skabt specielt til stedet Mogens Dahl Instituttet, hvor publikum frit kan bevæge sig mellem to rum: musikrummet og tekstrummet. I tekstrummet optræder tre kvinder som tre forskellige personificeringer af sandbarnet og som de syv søstre. Film, billeder, lyd og lysende objekter ændrer undervejs rummets karakter. En kvindelig fortællerskikkelse forbinder tekstrummet med musikrummet.
 
Komponisten T. S. Høeg har skabt forestillingens 135 minutters instrumental musik og elleve sange til tre stemmer: en kontratenor, en soulvokal og en rapper. De synger alene og sammen, de veksler med korte og lange instrumentale musikforløb. De råder over musikrummet, men deres stemmer når også ind i tekstrummet, som toner fra en anden verden, hvor sfærisk skønhed, meta-pop blues og hard-groove forener sig.
 
Varighed: 135 min.

Hotel Pro Forma Tomsgårdsvej 19 2400 København NV Denmark Tel. + 45 51 27 87 47 mail@hotelproforma.dk

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