CANTICUM CANTICORUM – Serge Verstockt
ChampdAction, Collegium Vocale Gent en Music Theatre Transparant

The Song of Songs: A protest

Passionate, contradictory and full of sensuality: the Old Testament’s Song of Songs is one of the most beautiful and mysterious love songs of all time. Throughout the centuries, numerous authorities have tried to interpret and claim this book. In vain, alas. Here resounds the poetic wording of an alien woman who, driven by love, dared to defy law and command.

ChampdAction and Collegium Vocale Ghent explore the Songs of Songs as a protest against social confinement, boundary powers and raised walls. It’s an inevitable love story in all of its rebellious facets: from joy to fury, from euphoria to anxiety, from certitude to doubt, from loneliness to a feeling of safety, from despair to hope.

Canticum Canticorum [or: The Song of Songs, A Protest] is a live installation in which the spectator is guided through the hallways of a majestic church, surrounded by immersive video projections, contemporary sound constructions and sublime old polyphony.