A lone cellist performs in the wood-panelled exhibition hall at the old Munch Museum. Marks on the walls show where Edvard Munch’s monumental painting The Sun used to hang. This is Beveget Cellist (‘Moving Cellist’), a choreographed concert devised by GunhildBjørnsgaard and cellist and composer Tanja Orning. The piece has a biographical backstory. Moving around the darkened space with a cello that has accompanied her through life since she was 9, Orning explores her bodily relationship with her instrument.
Electronics, and the acoustics of the building play a part in making the cello resonate in the space. Bjørnsgaard's choreographic work in turn expands the musician’s physical expression, seeking a dramatic evolution of both sound and body within the spatial context. Music is visualised through movement, and the movements Orning makes affect the music in in an amalgamation of instrument, bow, body, acoustic, sound and spatiality.
Bjørnsgaard, as always, makes us intensely present in a space. This was a poignant but also joyful meditation on movement and the passing of time. The marks on the walls where Munch’s grand paintings used to hang added an extra nostalgic dimension.
‘It is hard work trying to dance while carrying and playing the cello. Orning – rises to the challenge.Orning is for me one of Norway’s leading experimental cello players and composers, and it is great to see her versatility as a performer. Especially after asamisimasa’s performance of Yiran Zhao’s piece at HOK on Sunday 16th, where the expansive playing of Beveget Cellist was replaced by super precise gestures. Truly impressive.’