Skip to content
Marc Sinan Company
  • Projects
  • #
    • Am Anfang
    • Chaosmos
    • Der Singende Kopf
    • Orpheus & die Päonienfrau
    • Geister
    • Schlachten
    • more…
  • News
  • Profile
  • Calendar
  • Videos
  • Contact
en de
  • Listen Marc Sinan on SoundCloud!
  • Subscribe for Marc Sinan’s YouTube Channel!
  • Like Marc Sinan on Facebook!
  • Follow Marc Sinan on Twitter!

AM ANFANG

2020
  • Video 1
Photos: Dominique Brewing

A transcultural, multimedia music performance by Marc Sinan with the Djiguiya Orchestra Bamako, the Marc Sinan Company, the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and choreographer Kettly Noël.

Take the red cape
take the universe
and go naked
–Hamadoun Kassogué, Bamako, 2019

For the production AM ANFANG (“In the Beginning”), Marc Sinan and Kettly Noël explore religious creation myths from West Africa and Europe as well as scientific narratives about the creation of the world. Traditional and religious music from Mali intersects with contemporary European music. Bolstered with singing, performance and video art as narrative devices, AM ANFANG brings together Bamako’s Djiguiya Orchestra with Stuttgart’s Neue Vocalsolisten and the international Marc Sinan Company.

Spanning 150 fragments, documents of reality – from musical to poetic to religious and scientific – form various perspectives, one of which out of a possible 58,112,246,582,005,964,602,127,455,942,367,987,902,050,836,156,499,835,648,504,350,052,842,641,868,750,253,575,074,024,377,378,741,206,663,917,548,775,207,191,034,516,791,665,623,040,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or 5.811225 times 10 to the power of 169) permutations will be presented, first in a spatial installation, then online, and finally, as a hybrid performance.

AM ANFANG describes our world by reflecting its pluralistic, contradictory nature. Although we may realize that different perspectives can co-exist, we remain in our own indifferent existences, in our own worlds, each shaped by our own perspectives.

Interestingly, stories about the beginning are fundamentally at odds: Some believe that God created the world. Others believe in the scientific theory of the Big Bang. The Dogon people in Western Mali pass on the myth of a fraternal twin impatiently fleeing the womb, with a piece of the placenta falling off and leading to the creation of the Earth. The Dogon have also held astronomical knowledge about the invisible companion of the star Sirius and its course since time immemorial. Astrophysicists were only able to confirm the twin star’s existence at the end of the 20th century.

AM ANFANG aims to show that our knowledge allows us to have only seeming assurances, which only serve to distinguish ourselves from “the other”. But really, every certainty is only a further proof of the limitations of all human perception and insight. We are one in knowing that every worldview represents only a singular, anthropocentric fragment of reality – one small piece of a much greater whole.

For the installation at the festival DIE IRRITIERTE STADT, an oversized video projection combines with an immersive live performance to provide a mythical space in which the audience is surrounded by creation stories of the Dogon and the nomadic Malian Peulh people, sung simultaneously, contrasted by scientific perspectives on the origins of the universe.

“The most interesting productions aim to make cultural knowledge fruitful across historical and geographical divides. For example, the European-African music performance AM ANFANG, which the Armenian-Turkish-German guitarist and composer Marc Sinan presents at the Theaterhaus.”
–Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23 July 2020

“But it’s not the city as the frame of reference for this multimedia performance featuring five singers, three instrumentalists and even more African musicians, recorded and seen on screen – it’s the entire world, along with its origin.”
–Stuttgarter Zeitung, 23 July 2020

“…There are even more ambitious musical activities happening: Creation myths from Europe and Africa are artistically interpreted by Marc Sinan (composition) and Kettly Noël (choreography/performance) in the production AM ANFANG (22 July), which brings together the Neue Vocalsolisten and the Djiguiya Orchestra from Mali.”
–Recommended Stream in Unübersehbar, 17-23 July 2020

...read more

Marc Sinan
Artistic Direction & Composition

Andrea Molino
Musical Direction & Musical Dramaturgy

Kettly Noël
Choreography & Dance

Maike Wetzel, Holger Kuhla
Dramaturgy

Adrian Figueroa
Scenography & Video

Salia Malé
Scientific Consultation

DJIGUIYA ORCHESTRA
Lassine Koné Kamale Ngoni
Habib Sangaré Bolon, Kalebasse
Joel Diarra Balafon

MARC SINAN COMPANY
Oğuz Büyükberber Clarinette
Daniel Eichholz Percussion
Marc Sinan Guitar

NEUE VOCALSOLISTEN STUTTGART
Johanna Vargas Soprano
Truike van der Poel Mezzo-soprano
Martin Nagy Tenor
Guillermo Anzorena Baritone
Andreas Fischer Bass

Bocar Amadou Fanara, Hamadoun Kassogué, Amenophis Imaka Traoré, Salia Malé
Interview Partners

Eric Nikodym
Project Management

Wiebke Wesselmann
Project Assistance

Rokiatou Tessougué, Pierre Dembelé
Project Assistance Bamako

Darius Tschorn
Technical Direction

Volker Greve
Sound

Hans-Peter Eckardt
Camera

Benedict Jancke
Video technician

Abdallah Ag Amano / TADIAZT
Technical supervision Bamako / Video

Special thanks to Dietrich Becker, German ambassador in Mali & Magali Moussa, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Bamako.

A cooperation from the Marc Sinan Company, the Festival DIE IRRITIERTE STADT Stuttgart and the Humboldt Forum Berlin foundation.



Funded by

Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Berlin Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa


Marc Sinan
Artistic Direction & Composition

Andrea Molino
Musical Direction & Musical Dramaturgy

Kettly Noël
Choreography & Dance

Maike Wetzel, Holger Kuhla
Dramaturgy

Adrian Figueroa
Scenography & Video

Salia Malé
Scientific Consultation

DJIGUIYA ORCHESTRA
Lassine Koné Kamale Ngoni
Habib Sangaré Bolon, Kalebasse
Joel Diarra Balafon

MARC SINAN COMPANY
Oğuz Büyükberber Clarinette
Daniel Eichholz Percussion
Marc Sinan Guitar

NEUE VOCALSOLISTEN STUTTGART
Johanna Vargas Soprano
Truike van der Poel Mezzo-soprano
Martin Nagy Tenor
Guillermo Anzorena Baritone
Andreas Fischer Bass

Bocar Amadou Fanara, Hamadoun Kassogué, Amenophis Imaka Traoré, Salia Malé
Interview Partners

Eric Nikodym
Project Management

Wiebke Wesselmann
Project Assistance

Rokiatou Tessougué, Pierre Dembelé
Project Assistance Bamako

Darius Tschorn
Technical Direction

Volker Greve
Sound

Hans-Peter Eckardt
Camera

Benedict Jancke
Video technician

Abdallah Ag Amano / TADIAZT
Technical supervision Bamako / Video

Special thanks to Dietrich Becker, German ambassador in Mali & Magali Moussa, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Bamako.

A cooperation from the Marc Sinan Company, the Festival DIE IRRITIERTE STADT Stuttgart and the Humboldt Forum Berlin foundation.



© Marc Sinan Company, 2021
Imprint