5/8/2015
Douglas Gordon
Kampnagel, Hamburg
Bound to hurt: a world premiere of a musical which ruptures into a theatrical venture. In the contest of Kampnagel Sommerfestival 2015 that focuses on interdisciplinary works and collaborates with artists, whose works are defined by their interest and engagement in the present, pop-theoretical issues.
The International Summer Festival Hamburg takes place three weeks in August at Kampnagel and selected places in the city of Hamburg. Since its beginning in the mid 80s, the festival has held a key position as one of Europe's big festivals for new performance arts from all over the world. Each year it presents and produces over 50 different works of dance, theatre, performance, music, visual arts and film. The festival focuses on interdisciplinary works and collaborates with artists, whose works are defined by their interest and engagement in the present, pop-theoretical issues and radical aesthetic approaches.
Douglas Gordon is pleased to announce the world premiere of BOUND TO HURT. Collaboration with Philip Venables.
Using a compilation of popular cover songs as a basis, Gordon will develop a stage work about domestic violence in collaboration with British composer Philip Venables. Born in 1979, Venables is a radical musical innovator, whose strikingly visceral compositions have been performed by well-known contemporary music ensembles, including the London Sinfonietta. In BOUND TO HURT songs by artists as diverse as Carole King, Jacques Brel and Madonna, are re-imagined as surreal fantasies of violence. Douglas Gordon’s characteristic eerie emotional ambivalence is carried into the theatre – a medium which Gordon has recently started to explore.
The performance is written for the extremely versatile singer/performer Ruth Rosenfeld, best known for her collaborations with theatre directors Frank Castorf and Herbert Fritsch. She is accompanied by members of the German-Icelandic Ensemble Adapter, one of the most experimental genre-crossers in New Music. BOUND TO HURT is a musical offering which ruptures into a theatrical venture, tentatively probing the line between love and hate, between tenderness, eroticism and aggression.
As an extension of this world premiere, Douglas Gordon‘s installation THE END OF CIVILISATION is on view throughout the festival.
Music: Philip Venables / Stage Direction and Design: Douglas Gordon / Dramaturge: Laura Berman / Associate Director: Jasmina Hadziahmetovic / With: Ruth Rosenfeld, Saraa Sigrist, Ensemble Adapter (Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir, harp; Matthias Engler, percussion; Kristjana Helgadóttir, flute; Iñigo Giner Miranda, piano/keyboard; Ingólfur Vilhjálmsson, clarinet and Johannes Pennetzdorfer, viola).
Future dates:
7 – 10 October, 2015: HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin
June 2016: Theater Basel
PRODUCED by OUI. CO-PRODUCED by HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Internationales Sommerfestival
Kampnagel, Hamburg and Theater Basel SUPPORTED by Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Berlin. WORLD PREMIERE kindly supported by Ilse and Dr. Horst Rusch Stiftung and Rudolf Augstein Stiftung.
Image: © Studio lost but found / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015 / Foto: Ninon Liotet
Studio press office:
David Ulrichs PR +49 (0)176 5033 0135 david@david-ulrichs.com
World premiere: Thursday, 6 August, 9pm / 7 & 8 August, 9pm
Kampnagel
Jarrestraße 20, 22303 Hamburg, Germany