Josse De Pauw, Flat Earth Society/Lod & Champ d'Action

On 14 April 2012, it will be exactly one hundred years since the Titanic disaster. On precisely that day, the new production by Flat Earth Society (FES) and Champ d'Action will have its world première here. The sinking of the Titanic has entered the collective memory, touches everyone's imagination and is a source of innumerable stories. It has become a virtually universal metaphor for man's hubris "The Titanic is unsinkable, sinking unthinkable". We have come to know better and the metaphor has gradually shifted from the ship to the iceberg, which slowly, but surely, melts. In the first part of 'Iceberg', FES plays a new composition by Peter Vermeersch for soprano and orchestra, with words by Josse De Pauw. David Claerbout produces the images of the iceberg, which - through the soloist - sings of its own fate. The work is followed by an epilogue, which, as it were, slowly founders: it is the legendary piece by Gavin Bryars, performed by Champ d'Action and FES together, and in which the hymns, Morse signals and underwater atmosphere are given the typical and uncompromising Champ d'Action sound. Until everything is still again … calm and unruffled … both ship and iceberg gone.