Neuhaus, An Exhibition of Musicians, het Nieuwe Instituut

In 2019, Musicographics became part of the Neuhaus exhibition at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, organized to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus school of design. For this project I decided not to create a score myself. Instead, inspired by Meredith Monk’s Songs of Ascension, I let the building itself function as notation.

The performance began with violinist Cisem Özkurt, who guided the audience through the exhibition spaces, reading and playing the building as a score. Each room revealed another musician waiting: Erdoğan Cem Evin (guitar), Johannes Fend (double bass), Roberto Pistolesi (drums), and Weitse Voermans (alto saxophone). As the audience moved through the building, the music grew organically—layer by layer, room by room—transforming the exhibition into a living composition.

At the top of the building, while the audience paused, the musicians quietly descended. When the audience slowly returned to the entrance, they were met with a surprise: all the musicians assembled into an ensemble, filling the hall with a final collective piece. This closing work was inspired by the brick patterns on the northern wall—a reminder that architectural structures can also speak as musical ones.

For me, the most powerful moment was seeing how naturally the audience followed the violinist’s lead. They weren’t just walking through an exhibition, but participating in a score written by the building itself.

You can watch the performance here