VENSTERS

Vensters

On 6 November, HERMESensemble brings Vensters to Het Bos in Antwerp: a unique audiovisual work from 1967 by composer Lucien Goethals and poet Jan Van der Hoeven, and a remarkable example of early Belgian expanded cinema.

Vensters brings together film, live music, spoken word and visual art in a cross-media composition in which different artistic forms continuously interact. The work was created in the context of IPEM (Institute of Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music) in Ghent, where Goethals worked alongside composers and researchers including Karel Goeyvaerts and Herman Sabbe. It reflects the experimental spirit of the 1960s, a period in which the boundaries between music, film, visual art and technology were being actively explored.

For this new performance, the original materials have been carefully reconstructed. The original 16mm films were restored, while the fragile, hand-drawn and hand-coloured score was restored and recreated under the direction of flautist and researcher Karin de Fleyt. The colour films required for the so-called ‘beta sections’ were also reconstructed based on the original score.

This process has made it possible to bring three of the original four film projections back to life in a live performance. Vensters is performed with piano, cello, two reciters, three percussionists, analogue 16mm film projections and digital audio.

With this performance, HERMESensemble brings a long-forgotten chapter of Belgian experimental music and film history back into the present — making a pioneering work of expanded cinema once again visible and audible.