CRASH

ILLUMInations / ILLUMInazioni
54^th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia
4 June – 27 November 2011
Director: Bice Curiger
www.labiennale.org

National commissioner: Gábor Gulyás
Curator: Miklós Peternák
Author: Hajnal Németh

Hajnal Németh’s installation “CRASH – Passive Interview” will be on show in the Hungarian Pavilion at the 54th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia in 2011.

The skeleton of the work is an experimental opera that takes place on the stage of life, relating, and reflecting on the stories of car crashes in a dialogical form: the critical moment slowed down by memory and recounted in utmost detail; the drive and the course of events leading up to that moment; as well as the complex relation of man to driving, in view of his inclination to fetishize his technical objects.

Filling the space as an acoustic experience, the piece will also be presented at the show in the form of a musical film.

The installation is complemented with the librettos of the dialogues, namely the written records of the passive interviews, as well as the real life wreck of a car totalled in a crash, which occupies the space as an evocative artefact. Beyond the individual events that are recorded, sung, or impressed in a chassis, the composed versions of individual life stories suggest the possibility of determinacy with regard to human destiny.

Object installation,
video and audio installation

Totaled black BMW E39 525i Sedan, red light, 8 active studio monitors, computer, 12 libretti (passive interviews) on music stands, blue spotlight,
12 photos (b&w, 30 x 30 cm), lyrics printed on number plates

Video and audio installation featuring an experimental opera in 12 acts

Full HD video, 70’ (planned), 8-channel audio installation

Year of production: 2011
Place of production: Berlin, Leipzig

Author and director: Hajnal Németh

Collaborators:
Xenia Romashova (soprano), Jana Kurucová (mezzo), Susanne Gritschneder (alto), Gregory Warren (tenor), Nathan De’Shon Myers (baritone), Tomasz Wija (bass), Matthias Samuil (piano), Virginia Ehrhardt (piano), David Sills (cello), Jomo Charles - Schmid (the angel's voice), Kinderchor Canzonetta Berlin (singing), Jochen Wittur (choir leader), Reggie and Cornelia Moore (music); István Imreh (camera), Volker Schaner, Dino Grobe – Fufoo Film GmbH (audio recording), Yensin Jahn, Studios Saal3 Berlin (audio recording and mastering), Péter Lovas (technical assistant)

Post production:
Hajnal Németh, Volker Schaner, Yensin Jahn

Partner in realization:
BMW Group Cultural Communications and BMW Leipzig Plant

Producers:
C3 – Center for Culture & Communication Foundation,
FuFoo Film GmbH,

© Hajnal Németh