Caroline Bergvall

Caroline Bergvall

Caroline Bergvall is a writer and artist based in London who works across artforms, media and languages. She's a strong exponent of writing methods and verbal performances that emerge from multilingual, audiovisual and contextual concerns. Her projects include poetic works, audio pieces, drawings, installations, and live performances, often in collaboration. Starting-points and source materials emerge readily from a mixture of historic languages and contemporary cultural artefacts or political events.

RAGA DAWN is a sunrise vocal performance performed outdoors from the last hours of the night until the very early morning. A multisensory composition for two voices (spoken and sung), multiple languages and electronic frequencies to accompany and celebrate the rising of the day. A vocal and vibratory sound trajectory following the lengthening sunrise and the latitudes. The work draws on ancient and contemporary musical and literary sunrise traditions, such as troubadour love poetry, while at the same time addresses the linguistic territories of the UK and EU, specifically languages that are endangered or at risk, and those that are emerging.
Photo by Benedict Johnson

Caroline Bergvall has devised a powerful and moving performance combining music, text and voices (spoken and sung) in ritualised outdoor locations to reconnect audiences to time, place and each other. The unique vocal composition at the heart of the work was composed by the versatile and much loved British Composer Gavin Bryars.

Raga Dawn was co-produced by Metal and Festival de la Batie, Geneva.

Financial support: Ville de Genève, Etat de Genève, Fondation Wilsdorf, Fondation Göhner and Norwegian Embassy.

Musical ensemble/Project team
Concept/text/spoken performance: Caroline Bergvall
Vocal Composition: Gavin Bryars
Singer: Peyee Chen
Programmer and Vocal Treatments: Shelly Knotts
Live sound engineer: Sam Grant
Textile Artist and Costume Designer: Solomatine
Artistic Collaborator/Dramaturg: Michele Pralong
Creative Producer: Dea Vanagan / Emma Wilcox


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