robin rhode and leif ove andsnes: 'pictures at an exhibition'

this november and december,  berlin-based artist robin rhode will be collaborating with the norwegian concert pianist leif ove andsnes on mussorgsky’s ‘pictures at an exhibition’. leif ove will be performing the piano recital, while robin’s artworks are projected on screens around the piano. the original collaboration was commissioned by the lincoln centre in new york. there will be performances worldwide, including new york, washington, houston, brussels, hamburg, munich, cologne, berlin, london, moscow, naples, paris, dubai and shanghai.

the piece of music itself is a friend of the composer – victor hartmann. the piece of music describes mussorgsky’s emotions and feelings while walking through the exhibition of his friend’s works that was put up in memory of him, and describes also the works as he walks past them. the music has been used and treated many times since, by musicians as far apart as emerson, lake and palmer, method man, michael jackson and more. some stills from the making of one of the film sequences, show a piano which was ‘drowned’ in a copenhagen shipyard last march (for which the artist, robin had to jump into the icy water to do the filming).