Dirk Jan Jager and Simon Ferdinando - Leviathan
5 November 2011 (museumnacht)
Oude Kerk, Amsterdam

A performance composed of seemingly simple gestures: a man strikes a prayer bowl and climbs a rope. Two factors complicate this simplicity: the setting and the physical manifestation. In common with all gothic churches the Oude Kerk utilizes the concept of verticality to inculcate a profound sense of the metaphysical, reminding the believer that God will finally descend. The event of a body forcing itself upward to a dizzying height, its slow return and repetition, forces to the surface many complex images of the mortal body and the notion of divine space. Leviathan is a work of absolute and intense physicality.

soundscape Paul Glazier
photo Thomas Lenden