De Æsir – Een westwaartse reis (The Æsir – A Westward Journey)

After debuting at Noorderzon in 2008, Hora Est returned to this festival in 2009 to perform a show about migration. Points of departure this time were the Æsir, Norse gods such as Odin en Thor. A thirteenth century Icelandic source says about these gods that they were originally men from Asia who moved to Scandinavia, bringing with them foreign knowledge that convinced the local people that they were gods. Hora Ests sampled old ethnographic records of Asian and Scandinavian music for the soundtrack of this show, creating a jarring composition to accompany a performance about migration that mixes the stories of the Æsir with other stories about moving from country to country and from culture to culture. Thus, in its second show, the multimedia collective explored questions such as what it means to leave home and travel between continents; is it even possible to truly find a place of one's own in a new country, or can the migrant only be either misplaced or a god; what is the value of memories of the culture left behind in the new environment? 

Performers
Kristin McGee: Compositions, spoken word, saxophone
Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar: Concept, spoken word, film
Bram Staats: Compositions, spoken word, drums, production

Performed
Noorderzon 2009

Video art and music

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