British cello virtuoso and voice performer Zoë Martlew and Danish composer and performer Line Tjørnhøj engage in an unusual collaborative art music project as the creation of Tjørnhøj’s documentary opera monologue SPLIT begins in Århus on February 1st. The four-day open workshop shows the opening of a work-in-progress which will go on through most of 2011 and will result in the world premiere of the finished piece during the Copenhagen Wundergrund Festival in October. At the Women's Museum in Århus, the audience can follow the creative drama as the new work emerges. As the case is with the majority of Line Tjørnhøj’s works, also SPLIT finds its thematic point of departure in documentary reality – in casu personal testimonials from victims of rape during the Bosnian war in the 1990s.
After the four-day workshop, Zoë Martlew returned to the UK where the two performers and composers will continue working on the piece separately communicating via a blog where Martlew also describes the experiences they go through when composing an opera. In addition to words, they also upload pictures and videos, in order to give followers a deep, intense look into this collaborative art music project. The idea of the blog is that, not only Tjørnhøj and Martlew, but also fans and people interested in the project, have the opportunity to comment and contribute to creating the piece. A very interesting project to follow!
In addition to the blog, Tjørnhøj and Martlew will continuously make videos showcasing their newest development in the project. We try to keep up with them and will post the videos in our digital media collection as soon as they become available.