The project focuses on the recurrence of cultural tropes in proto-Semitic and Indo-European culture, art and literature – especially the trope of the flood, that brings about the collapse of a given order into disorder. Inspired by the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, Siegfried Kutterer brings his composition, ‘Gilgamesh’, to local audiences.
Together with resident musicians, Kutterer – who is classically trained in the European and Carnatic traditions – explores the historical transmission of the Carnatic to the European through North Africa, while interpreting the classical and contemporary forms of its transmission within the eclectic Mediterranean context. His work is accompanied by a video inspired by Monika Beisner’s new illustrations for the Epic of Gilgamesh, a publication by Pratt Contemporary, designed and produced by Carlos Jimenez.