Composition by Timur Iskandarov ('Tamerlan') - for the project - 53 Fragments:

www.53fragments.com

Toymaker's Dream

Composition by Sandra Hollstein - for the project - 53 Fragments:

http://53fragments.com


Creation II

Composition by Timur Iskandarov - for the project - 

53 Fragments (Part 5)  /  death-rebirth:

http://53fragments.com


Drink For The Dead / by Timur Iskandarov (Tamerlan)

Composition by Cornelia Pasch - for the project - 

53 Fragments (Part 5)  /  death-rebirth:

http://53fragments.com


Death / by Cornelia Pasch

Composition by Steve Karn - for the project - 

53 Fragments (Part 5)  /  death-rebirth:

http://53fragments.com


In The Night I See a Light / by Steve Karn

Composition by Dorothee Eberhardt  - for the project - 

53 Fragments (Part 5)  /  death-rebirth:

http://53fragments.com




Steps II / by Dorothee Eberhardt

Composition by Timur Iskandarov  - for the project - 

53 Fragments (Part 5)  /  death-rebirth:

http://53fragments.com



Khepri (53 Fragments Edit)/ by Timur Iskandarov (Tamerlan)

Composition by Ben Fisher - for the project - 

53 Fragments (Part 5)  /  death-rebirth:

http://53fragments.com



Without You, in the Lost and Found / by Ben Fisher

Composition by Mauricio Venegas-Astorga - for the project - 

53 Fragments (Part 5) death / re-birth:

http://53fragments.com

LUZ / by Mauricio Venegas-Astorga (Quimantu)

Composition by Sandra Hollstein - for the project - 

53 Fragments (Part 5)  /  death  / rebirth:

http://53fragments.com


Death-Rebirth / by Sandra Holstein

The poem is called 'Gdansk'.  

I wrote it for an anthology of poetry celebrating Chopin. The poem was printed in that anthology (Chopin with Cherries -  edited by Maja Trochimczyk.

in 2014 & 2015 I created an online project called 53 Fragments (www.53fragments.com) - and in the part focussing on Old Age I used this poem. I was very fortunate to have a friend create and record a piece of music - responding to the poem. Tamir Hendelman's exploration of the poem felt absolutely fitting. 

I knew I would one day like to bring the poem and Tamir's music together as part of a short film. The gestation began.

I finally got around to contacting another good friend - John Samaha (an Australian actor, voice artist and comedian) - who kindly threw himself into the poem. I wanted an Eastern European / Polish accent - and John is really good at accents. But more than that John, like Tamir - has a huge heart and rich spirit.

The poem is not not personal. My own Dad grew up in Gdansk (then called Danzig)- a German speaking inhabitant. The war meant he was never to see his home again ... but as I was growing up he would talk about the city as if it were just yesterday he was there. The chance to write a poem relating to Chopin was the opening of a door into a place and space that had made a deep impact on me. 

This will be the foundation of the short film I intend to make.

The gestation continues. And I am grateful to Tamir and John for helping me realize something that is close to my heart.

The poem:


Gdansk

An old man recounts
The cracks in the pavement youth
He never lived through
Yet never left


A tug boat pulls out memories
Of Gdansk’s palimpsest harbour
Across choppy waves
In his faltering thoughts
Chopin’s waltz in A Minor
Dances with seagulls


Wings displace wind
Sunlight sneaks through
Cover of cloud
Catching the eye

Of one seagull’s intent on more
On more than feathers
Or departure or arrival


His mother once told him
Without dreams his soup
Would taste bitter
Without love his life
Would too


The old man retires to bed
With his tugboat and a glint
In his eyes
For his beloved Gdansk

The waltz of a youth
That haunts him
Even now




Gdansk

The poem is called 'Gdansk'.

I wrote it for an anthology of poetry celebrating Chopin. The poem was printed in that anthology (Chopin with Cherries - edited by Maja Trochimczyk.

in 2014 & 2015 I created an online project called 53 Fragments (www.53fragments.com) - and in the part focussing on Old Age I used this poem. I was very fortunate to have a friend create and record a piece of music - responding to the poem. Tamir Hendelman's exploration of the poem felt absolutely fitting.

I knew I would one day like to bring the poem and Tamir's music together as part of a short film. The gestation began.

I finally got around to contacting another good friend - John Samaha (an Australian actor, voice artist and comedian) - who kindly threw himself into the poem. I wanted an Eastern European / Polish accent - and John is really good at accents. But more than that John, like Tamir - has a huge heart and rich spirit.

The poem is not not personal. My own Dad grew up in Gdansk (then called Danzig)- a German speaking inhabitant. The war meant he was never to see his home again ... but as I was growing up he would talk about the city as if it were just yesterday he was there. The chance to write a poem relating to Chopin was the opening of a door into a place and space that had made a deep impact on me.

This will be the foundation of the short film I intend to make.

The gestation continues. And I am grateful to Tamir and John for helping me realize something that is close to my heart.

The poem:

Gdansk

An old man recounts
The cracks in the pavement youth
He never lived through
Yet never left

A tug boat pulls out memories
Of Gdansk’s palimpsest harbour
Across choppy waves
In his faltering thoughts
Chopin’s waltz in A Minor
Dances with seagulls

Wings displace wind
Sunlight sneaks through
Cover of cloud
Catching the eye

Of one seagull’s intent on more
On more than feathers
Or departure or arrival

His mother once told him
Without dreams his soup
Would taste bitter
Without love his life
Would too

The old man retires to bed
With his tugboat and a glint
In his eyes
For his beloved Gdansk

The waltz of a youth
That haunts him
Even now

Jean-Luc Godard said:

“a story should have a beginning, a middle and an end,
but not necessarily in that order”

 
For most of my post childhood / youth I felt life as a series of fragments – joined together by time, by circumstance, by love, fear, hope and a feeling that whilst experiencing existence as a fragmentary condition – through art the fragments can take on a structure that gives reassurance and meaning.

In my 20s I created a porous document called fragments and now as I have begun my 50s I find myself doing something else that I call fragments but now with a greater sense of purpose, and a deeper connection with others.

53 Fragments / in five parts – a mosaic, a kaleidoscope, a patch-work about existence.

Part 1 – creation / birth

Part 2 – childhood & youth

Part 3 – early adulthood & middle age

Part 4 – old age

Part 5 – death / re-birth

It brings together pictures, words and music – by a collection of  poets, visual artists and musicians.

It juxtaposes their responses to the themes mentioned – their exploration, through their art, of the gamut of a person’s life (from the womb to the tomb).





53 Fragments

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