MAZE presents an evening of works by Christian Marclay, a pioneer in audiovisual performance whose practice blurs the boundaries between image, sound, and score. In Shuffle, Screen Play, and The Bell and the Glass, Marclay offers musicians visual material: cards, film, photographs, as open-ended scores to be interpreted live.
In Screen Play (2005), Marclay combines silent film clips with animated graphics to create a vibrant visual projection interpreted by live musicians. Because the film is visible to both performers and audience, a cinematic logic emerges: musicians are drawn into dialogue with visual tropes — waves breaking, cars rattling down roads, fires spreading — each image pulsing with sonic potential. At the same time, abstract lines and shapes layered over the footage remind us that this is not a film but a score. Musicians must navigate three layers: the evocative imagery, the graphic “notation” and their interaction with one another. The challenge lies in finding a balance between illustrating the visuals and resisting them — between sound conjured in the mind and sound made in the moment.
I believe in the power of images to evoke sound.
Christian Marclay
His works activate this belief fully. In Shuffle (2007), musicians interpret a deck of photographic playing cards — each showing objects like bells, wires, or hands in motion — recombined into ever-new sequences. The images suggest texture, rhythm, gesture, and narrative, inviting intuitive sonic responses.
The Bell and the Glass (2003) draws inspiration from Marcel Duchamp’s iconic work and the sounds of the Liberty Bell. Here, the score includes texts, images, and instructions that unfold across space and time, often involving site-specific or theatrical elements. The result is both score and event, inviting musicians to explore fragility, resonance, and silence.
MAZE performed these pieces at the Holland Festival in 2013, and subsequently in various festivals thereafter. They made a studio recording of Shuffle, which will be out shortly.