INTRODUCTION

FOUR ist die vierte Kammeroper des Ensembles UMS 'n JIP. Komponiert und gespielt wird das Stück von UMS 'n JIP auf Texte von Gisela-Ethaner Schelble, als oeil extérieur waltet Wolfgang Beuschel, Bühne und Licht baut der Künstler Simon Wunderlich.

FOUR hat das Schöpferische/die Schöpfung zum Thema: Der Mensch als schöpferisches Wesen angesichts einer ihm in den letzten Fragen unerschlossen bleibenden Welt. Grosse Fragen und kleiner Alltag. Schopenhauers "Welt als Wille und Vorstellung" kriegt hier ein alltägliches Gesicht. Den Widerspruch zwischen Sinnfragen und ihrem täglichen Scheitern greifen UMS 'n JIP in ironisch-verspielter Weise auf.

In freier Anlehnung wird die Schöpfungsgeschichte nachgezeichnet: in 7 Tagen erschuf Gott die Welt - Analog dazu durchschreitet FOUR die 7 Wochentage musikalisch und beschäftigt sich an jedem Tag humorvoll mit dem jeweils zum Tage gehörigen Schöpfungsthema: Wie trennt ein Paar Himmel und Erde? Wurden die Fische von einer Frau erschaffen?
Augenzwinkernd verweist FOUR musikalisch auf Karlheinz Stockhausens Monumentalwerk "Licht" ebenso wie auf Haydns "Schöpfung" oder Dvoraks Neunte, während sich mikrotonale Kompositionen mit musikalischen Mobiles und Electrobeats abwechseln, so dass man aufgrund der harten Schnitte ohne Weiteres "ora et labora" mit "Eros et Bolero" verwechselt...
Mit der UMS 'n JIP eigenen Leichtigkeit spiegelt das Stück die menschliche Unzulänglichkeit im Bemühen um das Verstehen der Welt und stupst uns spielerisch an, wieder die Frage zu stellen, wie wir uns die Welt vorstellen mögen oder wie wir uns dieselben Fragen das letzte Mal gestellt haben.

CAST

Ulrike Mayer-Spohn (UMS) : recorder, violin, electronics, actor
Javier Hagen (JIP) : countertenor, tenor, speaker, electronics, actor
Gisela-Ethaner Schelble : text
Simon Wunderlich : stage/lights
Wolfgang Beuschel : oeil extérieur
Ums 'n Jip : production
Zeughaus Kultur Brig-Glis : co-production

BIOGRAPHY WOLFGANG BEUSCHEL (oeil extérieur)

Wolfgang Beuschel. Born in 1954 in Nuremberg, Wolfgang Beuschel studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Heidelberg-Mannheim and at the University of Heidelberg. His career as an actor began in 1985 at the Theater Pforzheim. After engagements in Aachen, Basel, Constance, Lucerne, at the Zürich Opera House and Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, he works as a speaker, actor, director and coach. At the Zurich Opera House, he played the composer Franz Schubert in Claus Guth's "Fierrabras" - the DVD being released by EMI Classics. Handel's "Messiah," he produced for the Theater Aachen. In Zurich, he directed 2004 "Top Dogs" by Urs Widmer, 2005 "Dirty Dishes" by Nick Whitby for which Javier Hagen wrote the theatre music. He is also coauthor of the choral book "Chorissimo" with a focus on scenic working with choirs, published by Carus. www.wolfgangbeuschel.ch

BIOGRAPHY GISELA-ETHANER SCHELBLE (text)

Gisela-Ethaner Schelble, born in Heilbronn, Germany, lives and works in Grenzach-Wyhlen near Basel. 2000-2003 she studied at the Academy of Arts in Basel. 2009: DOCK Basel 2008: Regionale, Kunsthalle Basel , Galerie am Storchenturm Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Mehrzweckhalle Museumsnacht Zürich , 2007: Museumsnacht, Zürich, Werkschau KunstKompakt, Halle Linx, Berlin, 2006: Regionale 7, Kunsthaus L6 Freiburg, Fotografie 3, 24. Kreiskunstausstellung, Landratsamt, Freiburg, Netzwerk Junge Kunst Bad Honnef, 2005: Kunsthaus L6 Freiburg, M54- „Jetzt“ Basel, Vebikus, Museumsnacht Basel, Schaffhausen, Kunst in der Villa, Waldshut-Tiengen, Galerie M. Beck Homburg/Saar, 2004: Regionale, Basel , Vebikus Kunstraum, Schaffhausen, 2003: städt. Galerie, Villa Aichele, Lörrach, Regionale Basel, 2002: „Supermarket“ Projekt des Kaskadenkondensators, Sondergast auf der Liste 02, The Young Art Fair, Basel , Villa Steinbach, Musée des Beaux – Arts, Mulhouse .

BIOGRAPHY SIMON WUNDERLICH (stage & lights)

Simon Wunderlich received his instructions in art in Germany, Spain, the United States of America and Switzerland. The overall interest in Wunderlich’s work is questioning the perception of reality in order for the viewers to achieve a stronger sense of awareness. He achieves this by allowing them to take their time and engage them actively in a spatial and temporal situation, either within outdoors or indoors. Time plays quite an important role in his projects and they are often subjected to the changes of natural and artificial light. Recently he has been developing many of his art pieces within the architectonical context of the spaces where he is working at or where he is going to exhibit them.
He tries to draw the viewers’ attention by creating appealing environments to penetrate their momentary reality in a way that the current experience through the interaction with the piece becomes the important part. In these situations the viewer is confronted with a variety of phenomena, such as reflections, projections of light, mirroring effects, plays of shadow and light, experiments in the darkness, vortexes of smoke, malfunctions, sound installations, representations of space, etc. Wunderlich creates the phenomena by experimenting with products and materials from building supllies stores or so called DIY (Do It Yourself) superstores, that he uses because of their easy accessibility and their universal dimensions to which everybody can easily relate to since we are surrounded by them.
By the choice of the materials and the setup of the artwork Wunderlich tries to make it clear to the viewer that he offers only a mock-up for the ultimate experience that any kind of art actually can’t provide. DIY materials are characteristically simple and practical and they lack of delicacy and they have the spirit of spontaneity and directness. In the beginning their cheap and raw appearance can be awkward, but through process of assembling they lose their sturdiness and convert into something beautiful, actually delicate and often ephemeral.
The imperfection of the DIY materials shall help the viewer to enjoy the experience in the situation rather than to be overwhelmed by high-end finishes full of effects, which can distract and raise questions how something is really done instead of asking what it is and what does it do.
Wunderlich’s work turns into authentic “homemade” experiments creating situations about the exploration of the spiritual and sublime, while at the same time lending irony to itself through its practical character of the construction and its imperfection, which all can be understood as well as questions about the boundaries of art. www.simonwunderlich.com

BIOGRAPHY UMS 'n JIP (composers & performers)

['umsnjip] is the Swiss contemporary music duo founded in 2007 by Ulrike Mayer-Spohn [UMS] and Javier Hagen [JIP]. UMS 'n JIP is actually one of the most innovative and outstanding Swiss contemporary music ensembles and works on both new musical and scenical settings for voice, recorders and electronics reflecting live vs. digital performance as well as European vs. non-European music. Their sets equally accord to concert halls, clubs and big festival scenes. Since their studies (composing, sound design & musical performance) in Holland, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, UMS and JIP have been both invited to the most prestigious European contemporary classic music and theatre festivals (Avignon, TKF Zürich, TKF Lausanne, Shanghai, Donaueschingen, Karlsruhe, Berlin, Basel, Bern, Paris, Strasbourg) where they premiered as soloists and a duo more than 150 oeuvres collaborating with world famous composers such as Goebbels, Rihm, Kagel, Reimann, Eötvös, Wen Deqing and Guo Wenjing. UMS 'n JIP relates to emotionally touching as well as technically virtuoso, conceptionally perfect and sexy performances. >> more...