Anatomy of Sound

In Anatomy of Sound (In the Footsteps of Vesalius), HERMESensemble brings the world of the visionary anatomist back to life. Vesalius’ monumental De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem forms the silent backbone of the performance, while the key episodes from his turbulent life flow through it like veins. What was once dissected on paper is here reassembled in sound, space, and movement.

The performance breathes the idea of the body as a living network: a whole in which every fiber, every impulse, every vibration resonates within the greater organism. This concept becomes tangible in the space itself. The musicians form the beating heart, positioned at the center, while the audience moves freely through the space like bloodstreams circulating around that heart. Through iPads and smartphones, visitors can touch, disrupt, and nourish the music and visuals—as if their gestures were electrical signals triggering new reactions in the sonic body.

Amid these living interactions, the voice of history resounds. The creation by Mathias Coppens intertwines with a new Architecture Sonore by Mireille Capelle in collaboration with Bodo Peeters and Ezayona Capelle, entering into dialogue with Renaissance music by Josquin des Prez and Philippe Verdelot, contemporaries of Vesalius. Recordings by the choir Il Pomo d’Oro drift through the space like echoes from another century, while traditional Arabo-Andalusian music further opens the horizon. A sonic landscape emerges in which centuries touch and the past breathes anew.

The story of Andreas Vesalius unfolds not as a straight line, but as a reticulum—a web of events through which the audience may wander freely. Just as the body does not follow a single route but consists of a network of connections, Vesalius’ life is not told chronologically. The episodes light up like organs within a larger whole, each with its own symbolism, each resonating with the biological and metaphorical workings of the body.

Under the direction of Fleur Khani and in collaboration with Menno Buggenhout, Klaas Verpoest, Jan Duerinck, Gusztav Velicsek (ELSEVIER) and Maarten Buyl, a sensory experience emerges in which the boundary between spectator and performer dissolves.

The premiere will take place on Tuesday, April 28, during a concert for Inspiratum at the HERMESstudio in Wijnegem.

Bring your fully charged smartphone—because in this living organism, you are an indispensable cell.

Support this project with a donation through the Boudewijn Stichting