Between 1958 and 1965, the Dutch artist and composer Sedje Hémon kept a chronologically ordered (but not dated) record of 600 numbered notes tracing the development of her method of integrating visual art and music such that music could be “extracted” from visual artwork. Keeping these notes in such a methodical, controlled manner was a way of reclaiming agency within her artistic process and life.
600 Notes is a collection of 600 performed “notes”—actual written notes, musical notes, audio notes, and other plays on the meaning of the word. Between the two of us and the people (audience) present, we will perform our notes in a multimedia performance with live and recorded sound, gesture, image, and voice.
These notes fascinate us because of their idiosyncratic methodology—they are a mélange of Hémon’s carefully observed plans and discoveries together with personal encounters of whom she met, artistic influences, and private reflections. Taking her notes as a form, this performance is our way of making new work from our own artistic perspectives while re-contextualizing her work for audiences today.
This performance was partly made possible through support from the Mondriaan Fund and Stroom Den Haag.
Marianna Maruyama uses the body and voice as primary agents in her performance-based practice. Her work uses only a few elements—bodies and texts, mostly—but they engage a complex web of relations across geographies, histories, and languages. In her performances, publications, and audio recordings, Maruyama attends to the “before and after” moments of an event, extending the life of the creative encounters that inform her practice. One of her primary interests is translation as an artistic method.
Recent and long-term works include: 600 Notes; Deep Body Massage; How Language Moves; Il Milione; and the workshops How to Lose Your Voice. In 2013, she published Three Movements, an artist’s book dealing with the negotiation of a globally shared life after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Following an extensive working period in Japan, Maruyama moved to the Netherlands in 2012, obtained her MA degree from the Dutch Art Institute, and is an artist-researcher at the invitation of the Sedje Hémon Foundation. Based in The Hague, she performs in both contemporary art and music contexts.
Andrius Arutiunian is an Armenian-Lithuanian composer and sound artist. His music explores the sociocultural aspects of specific histories through their sonic artifacts, often dealing with ideas of identity, sonic appropriation, and thresholds of noise and sound. His works comprise electroacoustic pieces for chamber ensembles, sound installations, and multimedia pieces, including his composition on the decommissioned Visaginas Nuclear Power plant in Lithuania and re-composition of NASA’s 1977 Voyager Golden Record. Arutiunian’s Armenian-Lithuanian background has a strong influence on his work, compelling him to look into the layers of personal and shared histories through his music.
Based in The Hague, Arutiunian works, performs, and teaches in both contemporary music and contemporary art contexts. He obtained his BA and MA degrees at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague under Yannis Kyriakides and Peter Adriaansz. He is a researcher and lecturer (Master Artistic Research department (KABK), Sedje Hémon Stichting). He collaborates with various international ensembles (MAZE, Ensemble Klang, Slagwerk Den Haag, Synaesthesis, and others) and visual artists, and frequently performs his own solo electronic and audiovisual sets in the Netherlands and abroad. Andrius Arutiunian’s works are published by Donemus.