Thoughts about „The Garden of Dreams”

In a closed, isolated system warmth always flows from the hotter to the colder body. The warmth of Nigar Hasib spreads through the room with a universal power. The fascination of the work of Nigar and Shamal lies primarily in the fact that every step and gesture and every sound are rooted in and connected directly to the core of their work, precise, straightforward and without any sentimental adornments. To be at one with oneself as the key to be at one with all.

No way without a goal, no goal which, once attained, that doesn’t point out a new way. And the artists carry you off on this ritual voyage without baggage, without any ideological dictates, free of prejudice and shadows. The clarity of the images and the perfect order of the structure offer a direct access to an abundance of feelings and possibilities, to a personal “No Shadow”.  Their current work “Garden of Dreams” contains all formal elements and impresses through the truthful and intensive singing and an in every fiber authentic performance of Nigar Hasib. To my delight the artists added a facet to their performance, of which I, as a composer, can only dream. Recently I reflected on disorder in music and came to the conclusion that I could never create an entropic composition, because every arrangement of sounds would inevitably follow an irregularity planned by myself. As I cannot pour my sounds out of buckets onto paper and as even my most free and spontaneous improvisation would contain clichés and regularities, the composition of pure disorder seems to be sheer impossibility. While Nigar delivers her chant, she drops screws and nails and large amounts of cutlery to the floor. These materials not only accompany the superbly delivered chant (in quite an entropic fashion), but also create a precisely defined mosaic in which each random constellation of knives, forks and spoons appears to be almost purposely arranged in an exact order by human hand. It seems that Nigar and Shamal have shuffled a jumbled deck of cards in such a way that it turned into a well ordered one. Anyone who wonders now where in Nigar and Shamal’s garden, alongside that entire cutlery, the fruits might be will after just a few tacts become aware, that these are ripening in the audience all through the performance.

About the performance “The Garden of Dreams”
Text: Christian Brandauer/musician, composer, actor
March 29th 2013 at the Lalish Theater Laboratory/Vienna
translated by: Hans Echnaton-Schano