IN MEMORY OF OUR ANCESTORS

Kevin van Braak, Ensemble de Gamelão Casa da Música

Then you are slowly forgotten.
You’re remembered only twice a year:
On you birthday and your death day.
That’s it. That’s all. That’s absolutely all.
Two times a year they think about you.
Two times a year those who loved you heave a sigh,
And they may sigh on the rare occasions someone mentions your name.

["If you want to kill yourself, why don’t you want to kill yourself?", Fernando Pessoa (Álvaro de Campos), 26 April 1926]

On November the 1st, at 10pm, the Casa da Música Gamelan Ensemble performed "In memory of our ancestors", a musical moment produced for the occasion of "Too Many Shadows", an exhibition by Kevin van Braak. It was not by chance that the dutch artist chose this date, the All Saints' Day, to organize this memorial. In fact his work evokes his grandfather, which, during World War II, was made war prisoner by the Japanese army, having been subjected to heavy work, namely the construction of the railroad between Burma, current Myanmar, and Thailand, in which more than 100 thousand people died. To those dead, to all those who ceased in an infamous manner, buried in mass graves, to all our beloved ones, who are no longer amongst us, this work was dedicated; an improvised piece by the Casa da Música Gamelan Ensemble. In "The Studio of Alberto Giacometti", Jean Genet writes in an emphatic manner: "Never, ever, is a work of art destined to the new generations. It is an offer to the numerous people of the dead that either embrace or reject it. But the dead of whom I speak did not even live. Or if so I have forgotten them."

The Casa da Música Gamelan Ensemble was created in 2013, having had their premiere in the beginning of 2014. Comprised by musicians of various musical backgrounds, including Jorge Queijo, Maria Mónica, Luís Bittencourt, Miguel Ramos, Emilio Trevisani e João Pais Filipe – the percussionists that interpreted "In memory of our ancestors" –, it has amongst its repertoire original compositions. In the concert presented at Sismógrafo, handcrafted instruments were used, keyboard percussion inspired in the scales of a Javanese Gamelan, conceded by Sonoscopia – Cultural Association, and handcrafted gongs made by the musician and artist João Pais Filipe.