The performance is based on an experience that Anri Sala had while driving across Arizona, listening to baroque chamber music on his car radio. As he pulled into a rest area, an unknown radio station playing country music intermittently interrupted the baroque music. Anri Sala commissioned a composer to transpose this sound experience into a musical score, performed by a baroque trio, a country band and a radio announcer.
‘Twelve Ballads for Huguenot House’ (2012) by Theaster Gates.
Twelve Ballads for Huguenot House references the musical offerings that were filmed within an abandoned Chicago building before it was renovated in Summer 2011. The home’s carefully deconstructed materials (together with its occupants) were then shipped to Kassel, Germany and reused as the raw material for the construction and inhabitation of Huguenot House.
