28 Aug – 3 Sep 2017 · Sommercasino Basel

HeartBasel’17

Experiment | Experience | Express

While you read this, your heart is beating — 50 to 90 times a minute, for your whole life. It is more than a perfect pump: it responds to joy, love, anger, grief and stress. Your heart keeps the rhythm of your life.

HeartBasel was the first festival of Beyond X, bringing science, technology and art together. Artists from many genres created new work guided by the heartbeats of people from Basel — and visitors joined in with their own pulse on an interactive journey through the rhythms of the city’s hearts.

Retrospective film

The projects

Interactive installation

HeartLand

Permi Jhooti · Dirk Koy · Philip Kannicht · Fabio Masini · Lukas Wiedmer

At the interface of people and technology, HeartLand opened a live dialogue between audience and machine. The heart rates of several visitors were captured at once and fed into the installation, which answered with sound and image — a constant exchange of action and reaction.

Concept: Permi Jhooti, Dirk Koy
Visuals: Dirk Koy
Sound: Philip Kannicht
Lights: Lukas Wiedmer
Table design: Fabio Masini
Interactive programming: Permi Jhooti

Dance performance

Life's Pendulum

Carta Blanca Dance

Between two heartbeats there are moments of stillness that bring truth within an arm's length. A piece about looking beneath the surface, losing control — and accepting yourself anyway.

Artistic director: Jorge Garcia Perez
Technical director: Permi Jhooti
Sound: Philip Kannicht
Lights: Lukas Wiedmer
Dancers: Tana Rosás Suñé, Sidney Elizabeth Turtschi, Dévi Azélia Selly, Alba Carbonell Castillo, Florent Mollet, Jorge Garcia Perez

Live music · Dance performance

Herzfrequenz (Live)

Alma Negra · Carta Blanca Dance · Permi Jhooti · Florian Oberhauser

Percussion, e-drums and synthesizers blended with the musicians' own pulse, which set the mood and flow of the music. Dancers stepped into an interactive soundspace to bend the sound — a unique interplay of human, machine and music.

Director: Permi Jhooti
Choreography: Alba Carbonell Castillo
Sound: Alma Negra (Dario Rohrbach, Mario Robles), Florian Oberhauser
Interactive motion / heart programming: Permi Jhooti
Lights: Lukas Wiedmer

Music · Dance performance

Studies for One Disklavier Piano

Janiv Oron

A piano piece without a pianist. Three dancers' heart rates shaped tempo, rhythm and metre while a self-playing Disklavier sounded every note — keys moving as if touched by a ghost.

Director: Janiv Oron
Composition / audio design: Cedric Spindler
Dancers: Andrea Tortosa Vidal, Anthony Ramiandrisoa, Julian Nicosia

Music performance

Who Needs a Heart?

Elia Rediger

Singer and lyricist Elia Rediger asked what the heart really is to us — organ, metaphor or machine — in an evening of songs and stories.

Music performance

When a Heart Can Be Broken!

Elia Rediger · Daniel Freitag

New songs woven with well-known heart-melting earworms. More than kitsch: joy and heartbreak sit side by side as Rediger moves between soft romance and the abyss.

Interactive DJ performance

Heart Modulations

Nik von Frankenberg · Permi Jhooti

Rhythms, loops and sounds — but the source is the human heartbeat. A pulse sensor turned the audience's hearts into a signal the DJ mixed live into the tracks.

Opening talk

A Matter of Heart

Otmar Pfister · Elia Rediger · Richard Wherlock · Permi Jhooti — host Rolf Probala

Basel personalities from medicine, dance, music and sport opened the festival by talking about matters of the heart: what makes it race, what makes it freeze, and when they listen to it.

The people

Permi Jhooti

Curator HeartBasel'17 · Multimedia artist

British multimedia artist and former scientist who spent almost 20 years researching motion in medical imaging, including cardiac biofeedback. Initiated and led HeartBasel'17 and co-founded Carta Blanca Dance.

Website

Alma Negra

Musicians

Basel DJ and producer collective blending jazz, funk and house with African, South American and Caribbean rhythms.

Website

Janiv Oron

Composer · DJ

Born in Israel, based in Basel. DJ, one half of the Goldfinger Brothers, composer and live electronic performer; 2016 Swiss Art Awards nominee.

Website

Elia Rediger

Composer · Musician

Pop singer and lyricist, former frontman of The Bianca Story, composer of the LSD oratorio “Oh Albert” for Basel Sinfonietta.

Website

Carta Blanca Dance

Dance company

Founded by Jorge Garcia Perez and Permi Jhooti, combining music, dance and audiovisual art and working closely with dancers of Ballet Theater Basel.

Website

Florian Oberhauser

Sound

Explores sounds and rhythms from other dimensions and the interfaces between human and machine as creative catalysts.

Philip Kannicht

Composer · Producer

Stuttgart-based music producer, sound artist and engineer creating music for contemporary dance, installations and exhibitions.

Jorge Garcia Perez

Dancer · Choreographer

Began ballet at nine in Zaragoza, international competition winner, and artistic director of HeartBasel'17 and Carta Blanca Dance.

Nik von Frankenberg

Basel DJ and producer active for 20 years, radio host and part of the International Radio Festival team.

Website

Alba Carbonell Castillo

Dancer · Choreographer

From Valencia; soloist with Ballet Basel since 2011 and award-winning choreographer.

Dirk Koy

Artist

Basel visual artist and co-founder of Equipo, working across graphics, animation, video and interaction.

Max Zachrisson

Dancer · Choreographer · Filmmaker

Trained at the Royal Swedish Ballet School; member of Ballet Basel since 2016.

Fabio Masini

Artist

Florence-born sculptor, installation artist and stage designer living near Basel.

Website

Daniel Freitag

Producer · Songwriter

Berlin producer composing for the Schaubühne, including works by Thomas Ostermeier and Ivo van Hove.

Mykim Tran

Artist

Visual communicator focused on interaction and moving image; showed works made with Carta Blanca Dance and Max Zachrisson.

Website

Lukas Wiedmer

Light designer

Basel all-round technician at Theater Basel and Kaserne Basel, called in wherever an unusual light and audio concept is needed.

Festival team

Dr Permi JhootiTechnical Director & Project Lead
Jorge Garcia PerezArtistic Director
Güvengül Köz BrownHead of Communications
Suzanne RoudenCommunications Consultant
Rolf ProbalaConsultant
Dirk KoyAnimations

With thanks

Main sponsor: Gebert Rüf Foundation. Patrons: Swisslos-Fonds Basel-Stadt, Basler Kantonalbank, Bürgergemeinde der Stadt Basel. Workshops in cooperation with JuAr Basel.