Hallerstein - audio visual performance in Beijing, China

Cultural performance and exhibition in Beijing;
cultural program for diplomatic visit of Slovenian government representatives in People's Republic of China: November 9th, 2007.

Title: Hallerstein
Genre: audio-visual performance and fine arts exhibition
Author: Wang Huiquin
Director: Omerzu Silvan
Fine arts and graphic elements: Wang Huiquin
Puppets and scene requisites: Omerzu Silvan
Scenario: Omerzu Silvan
Performer: Srhoj Dejan
Video and processing: Dino Schreilechner
Music: Bobro Cameron
3D graphics: Breznik Alen-Flip
Production: KID KIBLA, Maribor, Slovenija

Theme:
Hallerstein or Liu Songling was a Carniola man and is better known in scientific circles around Europe than in the homeland or in China where he spent 31 years as a head of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau and Board of Mathematics. In Europe is well known all the way from London, Paris and St. Petersburg for there he was a member of the academies of science, to Germany and Vienna where he published his scientific essays, to Rome and Lisbon where his correspondence was found and even to Budapest where translations of his letters were published as soon as at the end of the 18th century. In Slovenia only lately the details of his life are becoming clearer. In the last years he has attracted the attention of Chinese historians as the author of the most intriguing astronomic instrument at the old Beijing observatory, the circle sphere.

Artistic concept:
Because Avguštin Ferdinand von Hallerstein was a scientist and a man of an extremely strong personality who lived in Chinese imperial court as a court astronomer for 35 years and studied the universe and even attempted to count the Chinese population, he represents a great inspiration to Huiquin Wang and Silvan Omerzu.
During the process of painting Huiquin discovered that the most important thing is to present Hallerstein to a wider public, to let the audience know about his important contribution to Chinese-Slovenian relationship. The painting of his image is a big challenge because there are no pictures of him, so Huiqin believes he must be painted as a faceless man. She depicted him with the combination of various technics. Her concept is to search for different material (letters, sketches, suits, coat of arms, pictures) and create a visual image of Hallerstein, a kind of calligraphy mage.

http://nv.qianlong.com/33530/2007/11/13/1640@4161382.htm

VIDEO .avi

Scenario:
The project aims to develop a virtual multimedia platform for innovative production and presentation of Performing Arts. An intended 3D (three-dimensional) environment will use the latest audiovisual technologies in order to interconnect European cultural centres and artistic communities, and to enhance the process of their collaboration on common productions by efficient distribution of realization tasks in the virtual space.
The dancer is slowly changing his clothes. Monastery respectively jesuit suit is transforming itself into Chinese national costume of the 18th century in a laboratory environment of the observatory. The historical end of the jesuit period is indicated with the deposition of the suit. Dancer places himself in the starting position in a pesimistic bearing for that denotes the death of Hallerstein.