Journal

A sporadic record of what happens in William Kentridge’s studio, in video, words and images

The Great Yes, The Great No
US PREMIÈRE PERFORMANCE

Adrienne Arsht Center
for the Performing Arts
Miami, Florida
December 5 to 8, 2024

US première performances of the chamber opera by William Kentridge, commissioned by LUMA Foundation, in partnership with the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

Creative team
Concept | Director: William Kentridge
Associate Directors: Nhlanhla Mahlangu | Phala O. Phala
Choral Composer: Nhlanhla Mahlangu
Music Director: Tlale Makhene
Dramaturg: Mwenya Kabwe
Costume Design: Greta Goiris
Set Design: Sabine Theunissen
Lighting Design: Urs Schönebaum | Elena Gui
Projection Editing | Compositing: Žana Marović | Janus Fouché | Joshua Trappler
Cinematography: Duško Marović SASC
Video Control: Kim Gunning

Performed and created by
Performers: Xolisile Bongwana, Hamilton Dhlamini, William Harding, Tony Miyambo, Nancy Nkusi, Luc de Wit
Dancers : Thulani Chauke & Teresa Phuti Mojela
Chorus: Anathi Conjwa, Asanda Hanabe, Zandile Hlatshwayo, Khokho Madlala, Nokuthula Magubane, Mapule Moloi,Nomathamsanqa Ngoma
Musicians: Marika Hughes (Cello), Nathan Koci (Accordion | Banjo), Tlale Makhene (Percussion), Thandi Ntuli (Piano)

Produced by THE OFFICE performing arts + film
A project of the Centre for the Less Good Idea
Lead commissioner: LUMA Foundation, Arles, France
Co-Commissioners: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami USA; CAL Performances, Berkeley USA; Centre d’Art Battat, Montreal, Canada.

Foundational commissioning support for the development and creation of “The Great Yes, The Great No” is provided by Brown Arts Institute at Brown University

Toured in partnership with Quaternaire

The Great Yes, The Great No
US PREMIÈRE PERFORMANCE

Adrienne Arsht Center
for the Performing Arts
Miami, Florida
December 5 to 8, 2024

US première performances of the chamber opera by William Kentridge, commissioned by LUMA Foundation, in partnership with the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

Creative team
Concept | Director: William Kentridge
Associate Directors: Nhlanhla Mahlangu | Phala O. Phala
Choral Composer: Nhlanhla Mahlangu
Music Director: Tlale Makhene
Dramaturg: Mwenya Kabwe
Costume Design: Greta Goiris
Set Design: Sabine Theunissen
Lighting Design: Urs Schönebaum | Elena Gui
Projection Editing | Compositing: Žana Marović | Janus Fouché | Joshua Trappler
Cinematography: Duško Marović SASC
Video Control: Kim Gunning

Performed and created by
Performers: Xolisile Bongwana, Hamilton Dhlamini, William Harding, Tony Miyambo, Nancy Nkusi, Luc de Wit
Dancers : Thulani Chauke & Teresa Phuti Mojela
Chorus: Anathi Conjwa, Asanda Hanabe, Zandile Hlatshwayo, Khokho Madlala, Nokuthula Magubane, Mapule Moloi,Nomathamsanqa Ngoma
Musicians: Marika Hughes (Cello), Nathan Koci (Accordion | Banjo), Tlale Makhene (Percussion), Thandi Ntuli (Piano)

Produced by THE OFFICE performing arts + film
A project of the Centre for the Less Good Idea
Lead commissioner: LUMA Foundation, Arles, France
Co-Commissioners: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami USA; CAL Performances, Berkeley USA; Centre d’Art Battat, Montreal, Canada.

Foundational commissioning support for the development and creation of “The Great Yes, The Great No” is provided by Brown Arts Institute at Brown University

Toured in partnership with Quaternaire
...

“While I was trying to make minimal or residual horses, I was also trying to make anti-heroic horses. Horses that would have the least right to be on monuments. I discovered this was not easy. Even the most ill-shaped, hollow-backed beasts with the most distorted neck and heads still claimed and held their space.” WK

“I am not me, the horse is not mine”
Galeria Arsenał
Białystok, Poland
Until 19 January, 2025

I am not me, the horse is not mine, 2008
Installation of 8 film fragments
6 minutes

Directing, animation, photography and performance: William Kentridge
Editing: Catherine Meyburgh
Composer: Philip Miller
Stage direction: Sue Pam-Grant
Animation assistants: Gerhard Marx, Naomi van Niekerk, Catherine Walker Galop Music
Composition: Philip Miller

“Ngilahlekelelwe Ikhala Lami”
Musical arrangement: Philip Miller
Music and lyrics: Richard Siluma and Thulani Manana Choir: Thulani Manana and Abanikazi Bomkhalanga
The Galop Band:
Dan Selsick, trombone; Billy Middleton, tuba; Adam Howard, trumpet; Ntkozo Zunga, Castrol tin-can guitar; Bethuel Mbonani, percussion; Thulani Manana, vocal leader

“While I was trying to make minimal or residual horses, I was also trying to make anti-heroic horses. Horses that would have the least right to be on monuments. I discovered this was not easy. Even the most ill-shaped, hollow-backed beasts with the most distorted neck and heads still claimed and held their space.” WK

“I am not me, the horse is not mine”
Galeria Arsenał
Białystok, Poland
Until 19 January, 2025

I am not me, the horse is not mine, 2008
Installation of 8 film fragments
6 minutes

Directing, animation, photography and performance: William Kentridge
Editing: Catherine Meyburgh
Composer: Philip Miller
Stage direction: Sue Pam-Grant
Animation assistants: Gerhard Marx, Naomi van Niekerk, Catherine Walker Galop Music
Composition: Philip Miller

“Ngilahlekelelwe Ikhala Lami”
Musical arrangement: Philip Miller
Music and lyrics: Richard Siluma and Thulani Manana Choir: Thulani Manana and Abanikazi Bomkhalanga
The Galop Band:
Dan Selsick, trombone; Billy Middleton, tuba; Adam Howard, trumpet; Ntkozo Zunga, Castrol tin-can guitar; Bethuel Mbonani, percussion; Thulani Manana, vocal leader
...

Morandi Objects

Morandi Objects ...

OPENING TONIGHT

“OH TO BELIEVE IN ANOTHER WORLD”
A film by William Kentridge for Shostakovich Symphony
No. 10

Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona
18 & 19 October, 2024

Performed by Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu
Conducted by Josep Pons

Director
William Kentridge

Editors
Janus Fouché, Zana Marović, Joshua Trappler

Costume & Puppet Designer
Greta Goiris

Set and Model Designer
Sabine Theunissen

Cinematographer
Dǔsko Marović

Video Operator
Kim Gunning

Executive Producer
THE OFFICE performing arts + film

OPENING TONIGHT

“OH TO BELIEVE IN ANOTHER WORLD”
A film by William Kentridge for Shostakovich Symphony
No. 10

Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona
18 & 19 October, 2024

Performed by Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu
Conducted by Josep Pons

Director
William Kentridge

Editors
Janus Fouché, Zana Marović, Joshua Trappler

Costume & Puppet Designer
Greta Goiris

Set and Model Designer
Sabine Theunissen

Cinematographer
Dǔsko Marović

Video Operator
Kim Gunning

Executive Producer
THE OFFICE performing arts + film
...

“O Sentimental Machine”

New project page now live on www.kentridge.studio

“Questions of machines and how they are used is an interest that has been explored in many ways.  There are a lot of found objects in the studio that have been used for different projects to create sculptures, kinetic machines or mechanical objects. The megaphone is an obvious one because it’s about the multiplication and expansion of the voice. But a megaphone is also used because it’s one of the three figures that Cezanne describes as being necessary to describe the world, a sphere, a cylinder and a cone. And a megaphone is really just taking the idea of the form of a cone and putting that to work back in the world. 

So there have been many megaphones in different projects.  But there were other machines made in the last years that are still sitting in the storeroom. This was an attempt to see, could one control a megaphone? In fact one of the collaborators who worked with me on this project hacked into a Playstation Connect system so that he could do movements with his arms and these movements would control the control the movement of the megaphone, a bit like a Theremin.  In other words there’s no visible connection but as your hands move you control how the megaphone moves.” WK

Take a detailed look at the making of the five channel film, “O Sentimental Machine”, originally made as a site specific installation at the Hotel Splendid on Büyükada Island, for the 14th Istanbul Biennale in 2015 and currently showing at LUMA Arles, as part of the exhibition, “Je n’attends plus”.

Actors
Sue Pam-Grant
William Kentridge

Musical composition & arrangement
Philip Miller

Video editing & construction
Žana Marović and Janus Fouché

Costume design
Greta Goiris

Director of photography
Duško Marović

Sound mix
Gavan Eckhart

Musicians

Voice
Joanna Dudley

Theremin
Janus Fouché

Bouzouki
Jannous Aukema

Piano
Philip Miller

“Mazi” composed by Necip Celal Andel, sung by Seyyan Hanım

“O Sentimental Machine”

New project page now live on www.kentridge.studio

“Questions of machines and how they are used is an interest that has been explored in many ways. There are a lot of found objects in the studio that have been used for different projects to create sculptures, kinetic machines or mechanical objects. The megaphone is an obvious one because it’s about the multiplication and expansion of the voice. But a megaphone is also used because it’s one of the three figures that Cezanne describes as being necessary to describe the world, a sphere, a cylinder and a cone. And a megaphone is really just taking the idea of the form of a cone and putting that to work back in the world.

So there have been many megaphones in different projects. But there were other machines made in the last years that are still sitting in the storeroom. This was an attempt to see, could one control a megaphone? In fact one of the collaborators who worked with me on this project hacked into a Playstation Connect system so that he could do movements with his arms and these movements would control the control the movement of the megaphone, a bit like a Theremin. In other words there’s no visible connection but as your hands move you control how the megaphone moves.” WK

Take a detailed look at the making of the five channel film, “O Sentimental Machine”, originally made as a site specific installation at the Hotel Splendid on Büyükada Island, for the 14th Istanbul Biennale in 2015 and currently showing at LUMA Arles, as part of the exhibition, “Je n’attends plus”.

Actors
Sue Pam-Grant
William Kentridge

Musical composition & arrangement
Philip Miller

Video editing & construction
Žana Marović and Janus Fouché

Costume design
Greta Goiris

Director of photography
Duško Marović

Sound mix
Gavan Eckhart

Musicians

Voice
Joanna Dudley

Theremin
Janus Fouché

Bouzouki
Jannous Aukema

Piano
Philip Miller

“Mazi” composed by Necip Celal Andel, sung by Seyyan Hanım
...

Surrealist dinner sequence filmed in the studio for “The Great Yes, The Great No”

Surrealist dinner sequence filmed in the studio for “The Great Yes, The Great No” ...

OPENING TODAY

ARTE POVERA
Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection
October 9, 2024 - January 20, 2025

An exhibition curated by @carolynchristovbakargiev 

“L’esprit d’escalier” is a site-specific wall installation made for the exhibition with the assistance of @marinefleurystudio and with the support of @liarummagallery, @hauserwirth and @goodman_gallery

OPENING TODAY

ARTE POVERA
Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection
October 9, 2024 - January 20, 2025

An exhibition curated by @carolynchristovbakargiev

“L’esprit d’escalier” is a site-specific wall installation made for the exhibition with the assistance of @marinefleurystudio and with the support of @liarummagallery, @hauserwirth and @goodman_gallery
...

OPENING TODAY

A SHADOW OF A SHADOW
Sharjah Art Foundation
Bait Al Serkal, Arts Square
28 September–8 December 2024

“A Shadow of a Shadow” is a survey of 17 performances created by Kentridge from the late 1980s to the present, from his interpretations of Jarry’s “Ubu Roi” and Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”, to Kentridge’s original works such as “The Head & the Load”. On view are objects and artworks produced for the development and presentation of these performance projects: drawings, stage backdrops, animations, puppets, props, costumes and installations.

Exhibition design by @sabine.theunissen 

Video: An outdoor installation of the eight channel, panoramic film “More Sweetly Play the Dance” (2015), Arts Square, Bait al Serkal, Sharjah

OPENING TODAY

A SHADOW OF A SHADOW
Sharjah Art Foundation
Bait Al Serkal, Arts Square
28 September–8 December 2024

“A Shadow of a Shadow” is a survey of 17 performances created by Kentridge from the late 1980s to the present, from his interpretations of Jarry’s “Ubu Roi” and Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”, to Kentridge’s original works such as “The Head & the Load”. On view are objects and artworks produced for the development and presentation of these performance projects: drawings, stage backdrops, animations, puppets, props, costumes and installations.

Exhibition design by @sabine.theunissen

Video: An outdoor installation of the eight channel, panoramic film “More Sweetly Play the Dance” (2015), Arts Square, Bait al Serkal, Sharjah
...

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