Site-specific music performance, 2022
Duration: 50 min
Music: Tōru Takemitsu
Visual concept, directed by: VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas and Kostas Tzimoulis)
Performed by: VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis) and Duo Hedi (mezzo-soprano Anastasia Kotsali, accordionist Konstantinos Zigeridis)
Will Tomorrow, I Wonder, Be Cloudy or Clear? is a site-specific multiform performance which is based on songs by Tōru Takemitsu. VASKOS co-operates with Duo Hedi, one of the most active new chamber music ensembles. Takemitsu’s songs, written for music theatre performances, television shows, and films from the mid-50s to the early 90s, impress with their hybrid, playful aesthetic, a mix of blues, jazz, musical, and Japanese influences. The visual artist duo VASKOS attempt to bridge the 20th-century western modernism with practices reflecting the Japanese sensitivity, through an emphasis on the concepts of folding, binding, and the harmonious arrangement of objects in space. VASKOS use as stage props prints from the photographic series “déjà vu” (images shot in Tokyo) and prints on textile from the drawing series “Late August Afternoon” (inspired by the homonymous film by Ozu).
The work, a Greek National Opera Alternative Stage production, received its national premiere at the atrium of the Epigraphic Museum. Designed in the interwar period by modernist architect Patroklos Karantinos, this unique urban monument transforms into a living work of art that converses with Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu’s fascinating world.
In a room, just as in a big city or a yard, I fold and refold the ruffles of time. I wonder whether tomorrow will bring clouds or clear skies… I unfold my thoughts, I try to listen to my mood swings, I feed the goldfish of memory in the bowl, just like those in the tank at the National Garden. They would take me for walks there, when I was a child. Now I sing about an uncertain summer. I cannot hold on to anything stable. Everything opens and closes, like images of a floating world. (VASKOS)
Produced by Greek National Opera Alternative Stage and presented at the atrium of the Epigraphic Museum (1 Tositsa St) on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 June 2022, at 20.30.
PRESS
18/06/2022 POPAGANDA
Toru Takemitsu: Melodies from Japan at the patio of the Epigraphic Museum [gr]
VASKOS and Duo Hedi interviewed by Dimitris Pantsos
15/06/2022 NEWS 24|7
A musical and visual immersion in the timeless universe of Toru Takemitsu [gr]
VASKOS and Duo Hedi interviewed by Giorgia Economou
14/06/2022 LIFO
First images form the concert-performance with songs by the great Toru Takemitsu [gr]
Presentation of the performance “Will Tomorrow, I Wonder, Be Cloudy or Clear?”
13/06/2022 CULTURE NOW
A multidisciplinary performance by the Alternative Stage of Greek National Opera [gr]
Presentation of the performance “Will Tomorrow, I Wonder, Be Cloudy or Clear?”
VASKOS 