Ed van der Elsken's ‘Unvollendete' Tokyo Symphony Photography

Ed van der Elsken's ‘Unvollendete'

3-04-2010 - 20-06-2010

For the first time on show: Tokyo Symphony, an important piece of work which Van der Elsken was not able to finish himself due to his untimely death. Yet the installation has been realized based on 6.5 hours of audio recordings, personal notes and 1600 never published slides.Tokyo Symphony is a personal impression in image and sound of the overwhelming city of Tokyo by Holland's most famous photographer.

Ed van der Elsken (1925 - 1990) visited Japan a numerous of times during the eighties and made a large number of photos and audio recordings. He felt really at home and was fascinated by the Japanese culture, a mix of traditional values and habits, and influences of the western capitalist way of life. Intuitive he took pictures of people that intrigued him, mostly on the streets. He had planned to use the photos in an audiovisual installation, an ultimate tribute to Japan. Due to his untimely death, he never could achieve this presentation. Only piles of slides and handwritten notes seemed to testify his dream. To little to start something, how speculative it may be.

Until 2006, when researcher Frank Ortmann found back the sound recordings for the project in Van der Elskens personal archive. It was the reason to realise this special collaboration with Paradox and het Nederlands Fotomuseum, manager of the archives of Van der Elsken. For the realization of the installation - based on contemporary views on Ed van der Elskens work - was chosen for use of contemporary (digital) projection technology.

Sound Designer Mark Glynne "composed" a soundscape of the orginal and new material, Jeroen de Vries designed a spatial three screen installation that also displays notes. Curator Frank Ortmann did the research, and made the selection and compliation. Lees verder Minder brutaal in Japan ...

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