HMK { HotelMariaKapel }

Following from a presentation at the 2003 Tirana Biennial in Albania, Orgacom developed the project Saze on Tour, in collaboration with five young Albanian artists. 

The artists took a reinterpretation of the traditional Saze orchestras as their point of reference. Around 1900 it was custom in Albania to have an orchestra playing traditional music in the hallway. These hotel orchestras were called Saze. The music was seen as a token of hospitality. People from the city and the visitors met each other in the hallway listening to the orchestra. Every serious hotel had their own Saze. Famous Sazes were invited to play in other hotels and toured the country. Thanks to this touring, Sazes mediated cultures singing songs from different parts of the country. During the Italian occupation (during the Ahmet Zogu King regime) the first recordings were made of famous Sazes. The Italians used this to propagandistic ends, recording Saze music on the one side and Italian fascist music on the other side. This way the Italians hoped to penetrate Albanian culture. 

In the contemporary Saze by Orgacom and the Albanese visual artists, cross-overs to music and literature are made. In the context of this project an old documentary film about the role of the Saze in traditional Albanese culture will be screened: Gjeneral Gramafoni.

Programme opening, Sunday 12 february 2006

2.30 p.m., welcome by Mr G.O. van Veldhuizen, Mayor of Hoorn 
4.00 p.m., screening of General Gramofoni in Filmhouse Hoorn (downstairs in Mariakapel)

5.00 pm., the artists invite you for a traditional Albanian Dinner, please make a reservation before 11 Feb, info@hotelmariakapel.nl 


ORGACOM
www.orgacom.nl

With the generous support of Mondriaan Foundation, province of Noord-Holland, City of Hoorn 

Open until 5 march 2006