5 November 2024
Hong Kong, HKSAR

Little more needs to be said from Silas Gotsch‘s gorgeous photograph(s) of the European premiere of Vivacissimo (2023) at the Kunsthaus, Zurich: the completely re-conceived performance, already the highlight in its world premiere in Hong Kong last December, launched Ad Libitum’s take-over of Zurich’s most famous arts venue. But I’d add these beautiful words from Marina Okhrimovskaya, a Zurich-based culture journalist: “Pavel Otdelnov’s video art and Eugene Birman’s music moved in time so harmoniously, as if LiLa’s cello was really drawing on the wall with light and shadow. Kihako Narisawa’s choreographic composition responded with a free echo of the ancient Greek dance of Isadora Duncan, who danced under the vaults of Switzerland.” It was not an easy task to excise the work from Hidden / Manifest, the evening for which it was originally written, but it became at least possible once there was no likelihood nor interest to move the entire show as planned to Zurich. I reached out to Russia’s greatest living painter, Pavel Otdelnov, and a brilliant local dancer-choreographer, Kihako Narisawa, to paint something new in the foyer of the Kunsthaus. Of course, LiLa, the young cellist for whom the work was written, could never be replaced as a stage presence nor as a virtuoso.

There is something especially interesting about the juxtaposition of a moving painting in a museum where paintings don’t tend to move. I wanted Pavel to create the artwork because of the context- there is a poignancy for me, at least, of a painter creating something that isn’t static in such a space. What’s fascinating about Pavel’s work is that, indeed, it is alive but seeing its projection onto the huge stone walls of the Kunsthaus’ atrium, it was a painting nonetheless, one with a tremendous amount of life. Thinking about the title, as well as the impulse to create the work originally, what could be more appropriate than that?

I am flying to the UK on Friday for yet another screening of Russia : Today (2020) at the University of Oxford followed by a performance of my String Quartet no. 2 (2024) in Florence, Italy, at the Teatro Niccolini. It’s been years since I’ve been to Florence, a city in which I actually lived for one summer, and I am really motivated to give it a new look and of course, experience my music there for the first time thanks to Quatuor Arod. All this back and forth elides the fact that I have been exceptionally busy in Hong Kong with my position as the Acting Director of the Academy of Music, with plans to breathe new life into the already-vibrant institution. Yet another intercontinental flight out feels like a huge undertaking and it is, but it’s a breath of fresh air, too.