This collaboration was with German filmmaker Angela Zumpe, where I composed and designed the soundtrack for her five screen audio-visual installation. Through the fusion of documentary and Angela’s own, often abstract images, the piece examines the Bauhaus movement and focuses on how the Nazis adopted this architectural style as their own and as the epitome of their Socialist regime.

The work premiered in a deconsecrated church in Dessau (the location of the renowned Bauhaus) and toured internationally. The locations of the installation are very important to Angela, as Westausgang deals with the hijacking of architectural spaces and cultural and religious ideals and beliefs. This piece was interesting for me because I was working with a German artist who was dealing with a specifically German history. As the collaboration progressed we became acutely aware of the collision of multiple perspectives: the accepted historical reality, the media version (as played out by the documentary footage that Angela was using), Angela’s own responses to both of these and finally, my own, distanced engagement with all three.

The soundtrack tied all the disparate elements and themes of the work together, providing an emotional landscape and depth to the piece, which transcended linguistic and cultural barriers.