In december 2022, cellist Benjamin Glorieux went on a week-long journey from Arnstadt to Lübeck. With his cello on his back, Glorieux followed the same route that Bach took 300 years ago, in order to hear his great hero Buxtehude play. Visual artist Emilie Lauwers collected his impressions in an installation.
the exposition
Travelling a route. Walking. In order, as after a time your feet step mechanically, to get to grips with an issue in your head. The wearing away of a groove in the ground. The collecting and harvesting of something beautiful along the way, and the imbuing of it with meaning. Presenting the treasures, as objects of value. They lay there inconsequentially, until you picked them up. Everything speaks to you if you are open to it; it is simply a question of listening and cherishing.
There are two stories in this installation. A personal, internal narrative of a single man who treks from Arnstadt to Lübeck with his cello on his back, and at the same time a broader story: that of J.S. Bach’s six cello suites, world-famous, played millions of times, part of our collective memory. As Benjamin described the six suites to me while playing his cello, I saw before me a small traveller in a big, magnificent landscape. I heard his meandering thoughts and feelings, and at the same time the changing landscape that the traveller was traversing for six days.
It is quite a challenge to prepare a journey without defining it in advance, without having a result in mind. Being open to chance. It was essential that everything was possible and everything was allowed. After a few days, Benjamin’s journey began to reveal its secrets. Benjamin sent me a photo of a tree with a placard on it that read ‘Natur Denkmal’ (‘Natural Monument’). Next to my house, a huge, old weeping willow was felled. On another evening I received a photo of a pine whose branches were laden with snow, which was consequently keeping a piece of earth green in a labour camp from the Second World War. That image also touched my soul, and for me it was immediately clear that the tree was saying everything, that it was connected to the moment of emptiness in the fifth suite. One person en route, the other at home: serendipities interlaced and together created a new narrative.
We shaped the six suites, each of which also comprises six movements, into six free-standing modules. Benjamin’s interpretation of the music and its keys determined the structure and the material choice. The first module simple and open, in modest wood, as an introduction to the following one. The second module harsh and confronting, in rusty iron and mud. The third enclosed in steel, with a few peepholes inside. The fourth complex and full of stories. The fifth dark and battered, on feet of used walking sticks. The final cheerful, triumphant, satiated. Finally we filled the six cabinets of curiosities with experiences, images and objects. The installation became a visual score. Of Bach’s cello suites. Of the journey itself, the highs and lows, paths and streets. The story of a traveller in the snow from Arnstadt to Lübeck, and his inner path. An encounter with the world and himself.
Practical information
You can visit the expo for free between 10 and 26 March 2023, in the Council Room at Bozar.
Credits
Benjamin Glorieux, concept
Emilie Lauwers, concept, design and realisation
David Carney, design and realisation
In collaboration with Bozar
