3.3 Working with the visual artists
Three visual artists were involved in the creation of the HumanTree, a sculpter, video artist and lighting designer. In the visual arts, there were two different works, 3 musical logs on stage and a visual projection. Linda was the creator of the musical logs and Daniel of the projection. When I first met Linda, I saw her three musical logs. Immediately I connected them with the idea of La Tronca and the Catalan Christmas tradition. Because of her busy schedule, we couldn't build something new but we discussed the possibility of bringing her art on stage. The idea was perfectly matching with the vision of the HumanTree and it is present through this email:
Involving your logs on stage would represent La Tronca (the Catalan Christmas tradition). I have the idea to keep it hidden until some point, when it opens the magic. Could we bring your tree installations to be part of the performance?’ (Email conversation, September 2019)
Later on, Linda and I met Daniel. First of all I was sharing the vision of the project and the seven themes of the concert. At that time, the music was starting to be created and as a project leader, I already had a picture of the creation while for them it was everything new. Because the time was limited, as we only had two months, and my vision was clear enough, we decided that a projection could be the best idea, as well as the three logs on stage. We planned to go to the forest, where we filmed the video material that would be projected. During the forest trip we had lots of fun and improvisation going on. My feet and hands in connection with trees were the main characters. Later in the subsections 3.4 I will describe the process of creating the visual art (The seven themes). It was quite challenging for them not to hear any music until the last stages.
The numbers in this following stage plot represent the seven themes that were performed within three different stage areas. (See figure 1.6) The planning of the stage was settled according to both artistic and practical terms. I believed that this movement would help the audience to follow the story of growing and coming back to the roots, creating a circle. And these musical and artistic aspects clearly contributed the artistic outcome as well.
Working with Jukka, the light designer, was as well an important part of the process. I wrote a stage plot (See General Movement), in which I summarized the character and the stage movement of each theme. We met one week before the concert, together with Daniel, to talk about the stage plot and the possible lights on stage. Because it was important for him to listen at least once, we agreed to find more time to rehearse, being the only option to ask for a longer sound check and do it just before the concert. During the last and only general rehearsal on the stage of Camerata, we did practise a few moments that were crucial for the performance: such as the end of Darkness and Light, and the end of the relief of forgiveness, where the lights played a big role.