Turn Turtle Turn · Oblivia

In the beginning was the ocean. Wind, perhaps, and billowing waves. Life emerged in the ocean – single-cell organisms at first, and then, sometime later, tardigrades, able to survive even nuclear apocalypse. Following many millions of years later, dinosaurs appeared, and finally, after eons of time: Humans. In the age of the Anthropocene, they made earth their own, filling it with human-made myths and purpose, with more life – and more destruction.

In Turn Turtle Turn, Oblivia’s largest-scale musical theatre production to date, which will see its premiere at the Münchener Biennale on June 5^th, 2024, we will travel through time together: Set to music by eleven-piece Swiss ensemble ö in a composition by Yiran Zhao, the three soloist sing an Oblivia-made libretto that tells of beginning and end, of breath, grains of sand, and (in)finity – and of the long-extinct dodo whose species did not survive human intrusion into its habitat for long. With a space-sensitive arrangement of live music and electronic sounds, text fragments and vocals,we invite the audience into a playful exploration of earth’s status quo as a tiny dot amid the eternal time flow of life. In set-up, structure, and concept created not for the stage, but for the public space, we will not only turn the performance’s audience but also random passers-by at Munich’s HP8 into contemporary witnesses of our experimental-musical contemplation on the Anthropocene.

A thirst bigger than the ocean
quenched by water
from ancient wells
from ice age streams deep under
drops springing forward
as I turn the tap, brush my teeth
spit the water out
and back it flows
into rivers of darkness

On the beach connected to Odysseus and the rest of them
where the sun burns my pale skin
and leave its traces on my body lying
on this 400 million years old surface
of stones slowly grinded into sand

****

I was wrong
there are beginnings and ends
beginnings without ends and ends without beginnings

Eternity is a well measured entity
a finity
at some point
or then not

I walk on a hundred-million-year old ground
I feed off
sundrenched
white giant skeletons
burned down forests
sunk down in layers of earth
the compressed energy of the ancient are calling

Excerpts from the Oblivia workbook on Turn Turtle Turn

Turn Turtle Turn as commissioned by Münchener Biennale is the first part of a new work cycle by Oblivia centering around the Anthropocene within the frame of which a solo lecture performance for Annika Tudeer (November 2024, Mad House Helsinki) is scheduled next, followed by an ensemble production with composition by Yiran Zhao set to premiere at Sommerszene Salzburg in June of 2025.

With clear voices, clear contouring and clear dispositions of bodies and sounds, a flowing ritual theatre emerges.

Roland H. Dippel, Neue Musikzeitung

TURN TURTLE TURN LIBRETTO

CREDITS

Performers (Oblivia)
Timo Fredriksson
Anna-Maija Terävä
Annika Tudeer
Juha Valkeapää

Singers
Fee Suzanne de Ruiter
Harald Hieronymus Hein
Lukas Siebert

Musicians (Ensemble ö!)
Oboe: Marc Bonastre Rui
Clarinet: Branko Mlikota
Trombone: Adrian Albaladejo Diaz
Percussion: Dino Georgeton
Piano: Asia Ahmetjanova
Violin: David Sontòn Caflisch
Violin: Sofiia Suldina
Viola: Maria Kropotkina
Cello: Martina Brodbeck
Double Bass: Daniel Sailer
Flute: Clara Giner

Conductor
Armando Merino

•

Production team Oblivia
Concept, Direction, Dramaturgy, Texts: Oblivia
Composer, electronic live music : Yiran Zhao
Sound director: Zoro Babel
Light design, projections: Meri Ekola
Production assistant: Stephen Webb
Costume design: Tua Helve
Costume makers: Eeva Varmola (EEWA, FI), Anna Hoffmann (Atelier Hoffmann, DE)
Makeup and hair: Franziska Röder
Graphic design: RÖD/ Jenni Salminen
Communications: Nassrah-Alexia Denif, Lisa Carolin Schubert
Production manager: Jenny Nordlund

•

Composition commissioned by the City of Munich for the Münchener Biennale
Coproduction by Münchener Biennale, Oblivia and Ensemble Ö
Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation)and by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).
Supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Svenska kulturfonden, Helsinki City.
Residency: TD Berlin

Premiere | June 5, 2024, Münchener Biennale, HP8 Sendling, Munich