Perceived Reality
Which version of reality do you see?
Intro
Who are we? Who do we think we are? Who do we want to be?
Kluster5 challenged composers Celia Swart and Alexandre Kordzaia to create a work consisting of music, visuals and performance about perceiving reality. Working closely with the composers, Perceived Reality was created in two different forms: a staged performance and a visual album comprising music and a full-length film.
Perceived Reality presents various sides of the development of identity: how we see ourselves, how we (want to) be seen by others, and daring to let go of the image you have of yourself to then be able to move on.
Celia Swart wrote a piece about a young woman struggling with the blurring boundaries between her real self and the perfect image she presents on social media.
Alexandre Kordzaia goes back to his childhood in Tbilisi, of which he has sunny memories, despite the aftershocks of a civil war. On old cassette tapes, he hears himself as a 4-year-old talking about an imaginary underworld he often visits.
In Perceived Reality Kluster5 did a lot more than performing the music. Based on the composers’ concepts, Isa Goldschmeding and Tim Sabel wrote the screenplay for the film. Working with director Gijs Besseling, they then developed a detailed shot list and chose locations to shoot. They also had a part in the editing to make sure the images fit perfectly to the impulses of the music. Isa and Tim were the executive producers for the visual album on behalf of Kluster5.
To bring the character Cecí Gold (from the album’s first part: Elevation of self-validation) to life, an Instagram profile was created for her, bringing this mysterious violinist to life with photos and videos (taken by Celia Swart).
Music
Videos
Filmfestival accolade
Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Madrid (FICIMAD):
Best Experimental Feature Film
‘Hypersonic, fluctuating and fast-paced initial part of the film with an original inverted suspense, instead of having a classic countdown it is a go to infinity and beyond. From the most absolute darkness, artificial lights appear continuously in an abstract space where Isa Goldschmeding is gaining virtual admirers at breakneck speed. With the accompaniment of the fascinating and tremendous music by Celia Swart we feel an inhuman psychic acceleration and that the train is going to derail. An absurd, meaningless trip to nowhere full of feigned feelings, fake gestures, histrionic costumes and canned smiles. As if we had navigated interstellarly, the frenetic movement and music suddenly drop to desolate ruins in the unknown, where Isa Goldschmeding becomes a stranger to herself.
The creation of a mental psychic without time and space allows Gijs Besseling a more chaotic and anarchic second part with the music of and Alexandre Kordzaia, being able to reflect freely and playfully on friendship and childhood with a sequence in mystical, enigmatic and picodelic animation by a Koka Kitia in a state of grace.’
Composers
Celia Swart (NL, 1994) is a new music composer, visual artist and saxophonist.
After completing her bachelor degree in composition (2018) from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, she has written compositions for orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra and ensembles such as Nieuw Ensemble and Kluster5. Her works embody abstract, yet narrative-driven and with a touch of minimalism elements. A sound world that manifests harmonic colours and melodic expression is reflected in her visual media as well. She also plays and writes music for her own modern jazz group SWART.
Celia has won the Keep an Eye Production Prize 2021, for her new multimedia production for Festival Wonderfeel. In 2018 she was nominated for the Tera de Marez Oyens Award for her composition Boven Hoge Gebouwen (written for Kluster5) and in 2019 she received recognition for her work In My Web at the International Rostrum of Composers 2019 (Argentina). Her music has been played at venues and festivals like Bang on a Can Loud Weekend (USA), Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Bimhuis, TivoliVredenburg and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK) and is broadcasted on radio and TV like NPO Radio4, BBC Radio3 (UK) and NPO1 Vrije Geluiden.
The Swiss-Georgian composer and performer Alexandre Kordzaia (GE, 1994), a.k.a. Kordz, takes his inspiration from all different sorts and styles of music. These broad musical interests are also apparent from the path he took for his musical training. First, he studied at the Academy of Music in Basel, where he composed electro-acoustic music and trained to be an audio engineer. After finishing his studies, he went to the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, where he studied composition. The focus of his studies was always on naturally combining electronic and acoustic instruments.
In Georgia, Kordz has made quite a reputation for himself with his danceable live sets and extraordinary collaborations, for example with the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra, the violist Giorgi Zagareli and rapper DRO. He is in high demand as a composer in Europe as well and has worked with Asko|Schönberg, Kluster5, Nieuw Ensemble, Slagwerk Den Haag, Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie, the Residentie Orchestra and Dortmunder Philharmoniker, among others.
Gijs Besseling is Director of Photography working out of Amsterdam and filming all over the world. He studied camera/lighting at the Dutch Film and Television Academy where he graduated in 2009.
His focus is on filming fiction, documentaries and commercials. Gijs enjoys working with content to tell a story in a powerful way in images. He also specializes in making music films.
Listen & Buy
To watch the film, simply buy the visual album. In the booklet accompanying the CD, you will find the code that gives online access to the film.
To order the visual album for €25 (+ €2.95 shipping within Europe), send a mail with your name and address details to: info@kluster5.nl and pay via this link. We will then send the album immediately!
Or enjoy the music on your preferred streaming platform.
Surprise
Credits
Supported by
