Gerhard Richter: MOVING PICTURES
Steve Reich / Rebecca Saunders / Ensemble Musikfabrik
The painter, graphic artist and photographer Gerhard Richter is one of the most internationally renowned contemporary artists. He was born in Dresden in 1932, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden and worked there as a master student until he fled to West Germany in 1961. In 2017, Gerhard Richter and director Corinna Belz conceived the film project “Moving Picture (946-3)”, which became the basis for compositions by Steve Reich and Rebecca Saunders. With the film sequences, Steve Reich developed a typical and masterfully controlled minimalist sound world. “Reich/Richter” was first performed in 2019 at The Shed in New York, where it was played over a hundred times. Rebecca Saunders’ composition “Moving Picture (946-3) Kyoto Version”, which she developed together with trumpeter Marco Blaauw for solo trumpet and electronic sounds, was premiered in 2019 at the Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto. At the end of the 32nd Dresden Days of Contemporary Music, the compositions of Steve Reich and Rebecca Saunders will make it possible to experience Gerhard Richter’s visual worlds in a completely new way in this extraordinary and immersive film concert project with “hypnotising and absolute sharpness” (Rebecca Saunders) in the Great Hall of the Festspielhaus Hellerau.
Steve Reich: Reich/Richter (2019)
Rebecca Saunders: Moving Picture (946-3) Kyoto Version (2019)
Duration: ca. 2 h, with intermission
Little dialog
19:00 Audience discussion with the director Corinna Belz in cooperation with the Gerhard Richter Archive
A cooperation with the Gerhard Richter Archive of the Dresden State Art Collections.
Gerhard Richter is one of the most famous living artists in the world. He has worked primarily as a painter, exploring both photorealistic methods and abstract works. His complex portfolio comprises more than 3000 individual works, including abstract-figurative paintings, overpainted photographs, art editions and sculptures. Richter lives and works in Cologne.
Corinna Belz studied philosophy, art history and media studies in Cologne and Berlin. She has written and directed numerous film productions. Her feature-length cinema documentary “Gerhard Richter Painting” (2011) was awarded the German Film Prize in Gold (the highest award in German film). In 2015, she collaborated again with Gerhard Richter on the abstract films “Richter’s patterns” and “Moving Pictue (946-3)”. Belz’s cinema documentaries “Inside the Uffizi” (2021) and “Thomas Schütte, I am not alone” (2023) were highly praised by critics and were successful at international festivals. Corinna Belz lives in Cologne and Berlin.
Rebecca Saunders is one of the leading international composers of her generation. Her compositions focus on the sculptural and spatial qualities of organized sounds, often created in close collaboration with a variety of musicians and artists. Saunders has received numerous awards, including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2019.
Marco Blaauw is an internationally renowned trumpet soloist and member of Ensemble Musikfabrik. He complements his commitment to ensemble music with solo projects in the field of composed and improvised music and intensive collaboration with renowned and young composers of our time. His work has been documented in numerous radio, CD and film productions.
