Voice experiment, Breathe column, Trial n°7, Edith Wiens, soprano

The video work was created in collaboration with soprano Edith Wiens. One insight from the project is: sung melody and drawn line combine into something new. For Verdier, the circling energy of singing becomes a vortex, which she calls a breath column. A vortex of energy that here becomes a symbol of the turning point in the life of Paul.

Edith Wiens has been teaching at the Juilliard School in New York for 12 years. Together with Fabienne Verdier, she has launched an unusual project [external link]: a "master class for young voices" where visual art and music meet. Fabienne Verdier paints or draws while listening to the music.

In the process, she gains various important insights regarding her painting. In particular, Edith Wiens’s posture and breathing while singing are reflected in Verdier’s own physical stance, resulting in a more dynamic line.

The video features an excerpt from a concert aria for soprano (the highest vocal range) and orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (*Bella mia fiamma, addio* / "My beautiful flame, farewell," 1787). Verdier works on a transparent surface that is filmed from below. The digital footage is subsequently color-inverted and tinted red. This makes the artist's hand itself appear as part of the moving image.