Opening Holland Festival 2018 - Richters Patterns

Ensemble Musikfabrik made it possible to hear Gerhard Richter’s beautiful pieces, and watch Marcus Schmickler’s music. Richters Patterns is a collaboration between music, film and paintings. Gerhard Richter is one of the world’s greatest contemporary painters, known for his abstract canvases with often intense colors. Director Corinna Belz created a film out of photographs of fragments of the canvases. Marcus Schmickler composed the music, which just like the film uses a method devised by Richter: mirror, divide, repeat. In this performance at the Gashouder, image and sound together influence the perception of the viewer, and create a completely new experience. Ensemble Musikfabrik first performed Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel (1971) together with Cappella Amsterdam. Feldman is one of Gerhard Richter’s favourite composers. The serene sounding Rothko Chapel is based on works of the painter Mark Rothko.