La Vie Urbaine

Optimizing space and its acoustic consequences, this project brought together DJ Zash, jazz quartet Mosaic, choreographer Tamara Roso, cook Henk Beekveld and a spatial composition for brass orchestra. Several huge churches in Groningen (almost freezing), Tilburg and Amsterdam, were each filled with about 100 musicians and warmed by dancing, mulled wine and Dutch pancakes. In Tilburg and Amsterdam a fashion show was added featuring designs by David Vos, Maria Driessen and Simon de Boer. In a seemingly coincidental and self evident way, the parts melted with each other. My intention was not to create a night with different acts succeeding each other to be watched by the audience, but a landscape of sound inside which wonderful things were happening. The dancers were placed among the visitors, who were free to walk around all the musicians. There was also dancing to the music of the DJ, erasing any border between stage and hall. In this way the audience could really enter the performance instead of watching it. (2001) website