top of page

Projects

'HYMN TO LOVE'

'Hymn to Love' is a performance directed by Marta Górnicka, in which I am one of the choristers.

 

HYMN TO LOVE for orchestra, stuffed-animal choir, and others is a show about Europe closing its ranks. Nation after nation is crying out: “Give us back our country!” And Poles are eagerly joining in the chorus.It is also a show about how every nation loves to forget. And how human time-bombs are so furious they're blowing their fuses. Thus, history repeats itself. So, just for us, the chorus will sing The Song of the Forgetful Nation:

The TRUTH is that this NATION let all of this happen. It let certain of its children, the chosen children, die, even though they were never its children, children of that nation. OK. So that makes it all right. And, anyway, it wasn't THIS country but THAT ONE: (high and low) GERMANY. And we don't know anything about it. WE DIDN'T SEE IT HAPPEN. Certain facts have been tailored to fit the story. And since it's only been a short time that we've had this country and this nation for OUR VERY OWN, we fight, fight to make it OUR country, our POLAND, ours and OURS ALONE.So we can't afford to take in those Fugitives now, either. Oh, we simply can't allow that. We have a lot of room but it's not enough. We can't squeeze anything more in. We can love them when they're at home where they belong, and anyway it's those who are to blame who should help them first. Besides, they'd come and grab all the special offers on smartphones, and seize all the bargains and discounts.And the thing about us Polish people is…A GUEST IN THE HOUSE IS GOD IN THE HOUSE…we sure do love low prices! In HYMN TO LOVE, I've composed a monstrous “National Songbook” out of various versions of the national anthem, marches, patriotic songs, religious hymns and folk songs – our shared musical repertoire, so eagerly being mixed by the nationalist rappers of today: 'TIS A DAY OF BLOOD AND GLORY!When working on this project, I was haunted by the image of the concentration camp orchestra, which played marches, German classical music, and tunes from prewar operettas. All the inmates were forced to sing along. Music played a part in the Holocaust. I am exploring the way songs were complicit in murder.I believe that the CHORUS, as a figure of the community, can show the workings of the collective unconscious. Its song exposes the frightfulness of a community bound together by love of country: of a homeland exclusively for people like us. A homeland which is like a family that has to be kept safe and pure by eliminating all foreign bodies – other races, religions, sexualities. Such a love is a perverse fulfillment of the commandment “Love thy neighbour as thyself”! It inspires Champions of Purity/Saviours to fight for our right to love our neighbours, as long as they look just like us. “You must honour me for my seventy-seven victims,” Anders Breivik urges, “Actions like mine prevent a future civil war, which could result in the death of hundreds of thousands. I put the world in order. I come to heal.”With a smile, Breivik insists he is completely sane, as the entire history of our civilization attests. He is right. How are we to respond to this horrific logic? Marta Górnicka

 

source of the text above and more information: CHORUS OF WOMEN

Other Projects
bottom of page