HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN CAGE!
Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall

HPDJC! is Lemur’s first happening, curated and produced for Bomuldsfabriken Kunsthall.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, John Cage! celebrates the composer, artist and philosopher John Cage on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Expect an array of music, dance, text and video throughout Bomuldsfabriken as professional artists collaborate with local artists of all ages: students from Dahlske upper secondary school in Grimstad, kindergarten children from Villa Matilda, the mixed choir Cantabile and students from Arendal Culture School.

The American composer John Cage (1912-1992) was one of the most important figures in the experimental art of the last century. In addition to being a composer, he was a music theorist, writer, philosopher and in many ways the first multi-artist. In Cage’s spirit, the happening has no fixed starting point. Instead, it invites the audience to a fluid and varied, surprising and spectacular event.

In Cage’s music, both the performer and the composer are secondary. The focus is on the listener. It is this special relationship between audience and performer that Lemur wants to explore in presenting John Cage and his world.

Full programme

Live performance of Cage works (Four6, Fontana Mix, Variations II & III)
Readings of Cage texts (Indeterminacy, Lecture on Nothing)
Screening of DVD (One11 – Cage’s only film)
Lecture on Cage (by Michael Duch, PhD in improvisation and experimental music from NTNU)
Workshop for children
Workshop with local choirs
Video work by artist Ellen Røed
Choreographies based on the ideas of Merce Cunningham
Workshop with cultural school and upper secondary school groups