Visitor of SACRIFCE on 27 May can attend SPRING & Nordic Delight Festival present… Closing Party ft. Milkywhale – live & FM Belfast DJ-set (IS) for free.
Created with Matthew Barney (US), Ragnar Kjartansson (IS), Gabríela Friðriksdóttir (IS), Margrét Bjarnadóttir (IS) & Bryce David Dessner (US)
SACRIFICE is a full-length extravaganza with visual art, pop music, theatre and dance, a four-part Gesamtkunstwerk.
Even though God may have been dead a long time, ‘believing’ is very much alive. We want to believe. In money and justice, in the nation and progress, in Johan Cruyff and Donald Trump, in Facebook and Google, in algorithms but also in art and creativity. Our capacity to believe has inspired Erna Ómarsdóttir and her partner Valdimar Jóhannsson to explore the relationship between art and religion. They concluded: both need rituals. Ómarsdóttir and Jóhannsson asked three leading visual artists, Matthew Barney, Ragnar Kjartansson and Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, to join them in creating three rituals that can be adopted by all faiths and ethnic backgrounds. They were supported by artists like musician/composer Bryce Dessner (The National), singer Sofia Jernberg, choreographer Margrét Bjarnadóttir and scenographer Signe Becker.
THE PARTS:
No Tomorrow – Ragnar Kjartansson, Margrét Bjarnadóttir & Bryce David Dessner
Ragnar Kjartansson and Margrét Bjarnadóttir describe the ritual as “a choreography of spatial music”. No Tomorrow is a performance about growing up and the music that is part of that. Look forward to seeing eight female dancers from the Iceland Dance Company and hearing a great number of acoustic guitars perform Bryce Dessner’s musical arrangements that aim straight to the heart.
Union of the North – Matthew Barney, Erna Ómarsdóttir & Valdimar Jóhannsson
With Erna Ómarsdóttir and Valdimar Jóhannsson the renowned US artist Matthew Barney is presenting a new take on one of the oldest rituals in the world: the wedding. Union of the North is part film and part live performance with choreography, reality TV, music, split- screens and a gigantic inflatable doughnut as its main components.
Shrine / Dies Irae – Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, Erna Ómarsdóttir & Valdimar Jóhannsson
We grow up and get married, we die and get buried. Shrine / Dies Irae is a careful ritual set in a creative workshop where performers concentrate on contacting the hereafter. Shrine is a performance about the continuous course and cycle of life, with the video-installation Dies Irae as a strong visual element.
The Market – Erna Ómarsdóttir & Valdimar Jóhannsson
The foyer of Stadsschouwburg Utrecht as a market square. Utrechters from different
backgrounds and from all walks of life set up their stalls here to pitch their beliefs, life philosophies,
values and matching wares. There are also interventions and performances by the cast of SACRIFICE, which will end in a ‘big bang’.