(MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- Peak Performances presents Lena Herzog’s Last Whispers, an immersive AV experience dedicated to vanishing languages, accompanied by panel discussions on select days, October 16-20 at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University. Tickets are $30 and free for Montclair State undergraduates with ID.
Trained in linguistics and philosophy, Herzog, also as an acclaimed photographer, has taken an ongoing interest in indigenous languages, which are disappearing at an astonishing rate. By 2050, half of roughly 7,000 languages spoken around the world will fall silent. Herzog’s “haunting and singular” (The New Yorker critic Alex Ross) immersive oratorio—situated at the intersection of installation art, music, and film—features spoken and sung recordings of more than 40 endangered or lost languages.
Through sound design and composition by Marco Capalbo and Mark Mangini, these languages combine with the interpreted frequencies of collapsing stars captured by the Laser Interferometer GravitationalWave Observatory. Herzog considers the culturally formative capacity of language and the intimacy of its use—in turn evoking losses both personal and global. Languages swell into an enveloping chorus around a multifaceted film element including drone footage and original 3D animation mapping extinct and endangered languages’ locations.
As Le Monde describes, Last Whispers investigates the space “between contrary elements of nature and culture, earth and the cosmos, the past and future.” Herzog tells the publication, “When I considered these languages, I thought about their end, but oddly also their beginnings. The biggest challenge was being constantly attuned to both the micro—the inflection of the voice—as well as the cosmic dimension—the disappearance of a culture—yet I had a feeling of completing a circle. You cannot separate thought from language. Language is our first creative act and the voice is its base unit.”
Of the work’s three-part structure, Herzog tells BOMB: “[This is] a choral piece. Like a good oratorio, it should have arias, and for that we will use the singing voices…and we will also have the spoken word and chorus. And the second half [uses the recordings to illuminate] what happens to the languages, which is this dislocation and interruption. The second part is a highly postmodern piece. In the finale…we pick up what has been lovingly scattered…The idea with the finale was that the voices need to wrap around us. We need to be completely absorbed, and the room needs to be filled with them. And then end on an exhale.”
ACP Executive Director Jedediah Wheeler says, “Language is culture—verbal or non verbal. Its loss is profoundly disturbing. Last Whispers is an artist's lament that inspired the current PEAK season. I am deeply grateful for Lena Herzog's passionate commitment to the preservation of world culture and languages that make us uniquely different.”
“While we are drowning in the noise of our own voices, uttered within dominant cultures and languages, we are surrounded by an ocean filled with the silence of others and barely hear an echo of the vanishing chorus. We must hear it and feel its loss.” –Lena Herzog
Multiple panels and open discussions are planned to take place over the course of the installation’s time at the Alexander Kasser Theater. They will feature Montclair State University professors and undergraduate students (Wednesday, October 16); Herzog in conversation with Jedediah Wheeler (October 17); Mary Linn, Curator of Cultural and Linguistic Revitalization at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (October 18); and Ross Perlin, co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, speaking with activists, scholars, and artists invested in protecting and revitalizing native languages in our region.
Languages featured in Last Whispers include: Ahom, Ainu, Ayoreo, Bathari, Central Balsas Nahuatal, Chamacoco (Ishir Ibitoso), Dalabon, Duoxu, Enxlet Norte, Great Andamanese, Ikaan, Ingrian, Ixcatec, JuǀʼHoan, Kotiria (Wanano), Koyukon, Laklãnõ Xokleng, Light Warlpiri, Los Capomos Mayo, Mani Manx, Mbya Guarani, Nǁng, Nafsan (South Efate), Nivkh, Olekha, Ongota, Paunaka, Pite Saami, Qaqet, Sadu, Selk’nam (Ona), Selkup, Sumtu (Sone Tu), Surel, Tehuelche, Trung (Dulong), Warlpiri, Yanesha, Yauyos Quechua, and Yoloxóchitl Mixtec.
Last Whispers: Concept/Directed/Produced by Lena Herzog; Sound Design and Composition: Mark Mangini and Marco Capalbo; Animation: Amanda Tasse; Photography and Video: Tomas Van Houtryve, Lena Herzog, and Aziz Lechgar; Research: Theresa Schwartzman and Eveling Villa; Editor: Sean Scannell; Typography and Design: Maggie Morris.
The United Nations General Assembly has designated 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages. Just prior to Peak Performances’ presentation of the oratorio, Film at Lincoln Center will, for the Convergence section of the 57th New York Film Festival (which runs October 10-13), feature a striking 8-minute virtual reality version of Last Whispers.
About the artists
Lena Herzog (concept & direction) is a multimedia artist. She studied Philosophy and Linguistics (Philology), began working primarily in the field of photography and print making since 1997. Herzog is the author of six books of photography; her work has been widely published and reviewed by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, among many others. She is a regular contributing artist to Harper’s Magazine. Her work has been collected and exhibited in major museums and institutions around the world.
Marco Capalbo (sound designer and composer) has directed film, theatre, opera and music. His most recent documentary film Stravinsky in Hollywood was produced for Arte in 2014. Stage productions include: John Eaton’s opera The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at Symphony Space, New York; Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Helicopter String Quartet for the opening of Red Bull’s Hangar-7 at Salzburg Airport. Compositions include: recently… (2013), Le Greygnour Bien: a Pendant to Rodney Graham’s Three Musicians (2015) and In the Vast Wave of the World’s Breath (2014).
Mark Mangini (sound designer and composer) won an Oscar in 2016 as sound designer for the film Mad Max: Fury Road and has been nominated previously for sound design for several films. He has spent his 40-year career in Hollywood imagining and composing altered sonic realities for motion pictures. He is a frequent lecturer, an outspoken proponent for sound as art and is a guitarist and a songwriter with compositions for Sex, Lies and Videotape, Star Trek IV and others. He is a current governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as a member of SAG, SMPTE and ASCAP.
Performance and Panel Schedule and Ticketing - Last Whispers will take place Wednesday, October 16 at 3pm; Thursday, October 17-Saturday, October 19 at 7:30pm; and in back-to-back presentations Sunday, October 20 at 1:30pm and 3pm at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University (1 Normal Ave, Montclair, NJ). Panel discussions will accompany select presentations of the oratorio, which runs 48 minutes. Tickets are affordably priced at $30, and can be purchased at www.peakperfs.org or 973.655.5112. Tickets are always free for Montclair State students. Because of the unique nature of this series – including rich panel discussions and an experience that lends itself to repeated viewing – audiences are invited to attend one or more events for the price of a single ticket. For more information, please contact the box office.
Panel Discussions Accompanying Last Whispers:
Wednesday, October 16 - 3pm, Pre-Show - Celebrating Language Across Cultures
Thursday, October 17 – 7:30pm, Post-Show - Lena Herzog - Her Advocacy and Artistry
Friday, October 18 – 7:30pm, Pre-show - Global Responses to Language Loss
Saturday, October 19 – 7:30pm, Pre-show - Loud & Clear: Linguistic Diversity on the Brink
