Ludwig Berger
Blue Hour Observatory
5 wind players, 5 poets and 4 filmmakers in different rooms after sunset

The time-specific audiovisual piece establishes a quiet everyday ritual during the blue hour – the time after sunset, before the arrival of the night. It features the video and audio recordings of filmmakers, poets, and wind players, that documented their experience of the blue hour from their rooms across the world. These recordings were juxtaposed, resulting in a collective perception with correspondences and discrepancies. The piece creates the frame for the audience’s own experience in the room and its spatial aperture to the blue, in which the apparent stabilities of body and space become fluid.

ORIGINAL SCORE (for filmmakers, poets and musicians in different places):
Right after sunset, go into a room where you can observe the sky.
Leave the lights off. Start your camera or audio recorder.
Observe and document any changes as they are taking place: The phenomenon outside, the atmosphere inside, your sensations.
Filmmakers: Film continuously. Keep the camera in your hand. You can use zoom.
Poets: Share your observations and thoughts. Speak continuously or sporadically.
Musicians: Play only a single note in different octaves or produce non-tonal sounds.
Stop your recording if you feel like the blue hour has ended.

Images by Roman Bordun (Lviv, Ukraine)
Yokna Hasegawa (Tokyo, Japan)
Laura Harrington (Newcastle, UK)
Lara Sousa (Maputo, Mozambique)

Music by Robin Hayward, Tuba (Berlin, Germany)
Terri Hron, Bass Recorder (Montreal, Canada)
Tati Lopez, Sicu (La Paz, Bolivia)
Teguh Permana
Suling (Badung, Indonesia)
Heru Shabaka-Ra, Trumpet (Sacramento, USA)

Words by Khensani de Klerk (Cambridge, UK / South Africa)
Josephine Dickinson (Alston Moor, UK)
Kübra Gümüsay (Hamburg, Germany)
Raphael Joseph (Thessaloniki, Greece / India)
John Lacarbiere III (New Orleans, USA)

Original concept by Ludwig Berger & Lara Mehling

Developed during “Il Circolo del Frattempo Residency 2020” (curated by MADAM & -OUS)