dancers: Petra Chelfi, Andreja Jandrić, Martina Nevistić, Filipa Bavčević, Sintija Kučić, Petra Valentić, Kasija Vrbanac
music advisor: Davorka Begović
music: J. S. Bach: Umijeće fuge/The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 / Contrapunctus 14: Canon Per Augmentationem In Contrario Motu - P. Setzer, D. Finckel / Contrapunctus I - Emerson String Quartet, obrada/arranged by: David Hernandez / Contrapunctus 14 (18): Fuga a 3 Soggetti - Emerson String Quartet / Bojan Gagić: elektronička djela/electronic workds, field recording, live procesiranje elektroničkog zvuka/ live processing of electronic sound
sound designer:Bojan Gagić
light designers: Bojan Gagić, Saša Bogojević
set designer: Zdravka Ivandija Kirigin
costume designers: Ana Fucijaš, Zdravka Ivandija Kirigin
photographer: Jelena Janković
rehearsal director: Ognjen Vučinić
producer: Koraljka Begović
company director: Petra Glad
production: Zagreb Dance Company
in co-production with: ZeKaeM Theatre
supported by: Zagreb City Office for Culture, Education and Sport; the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia
In The Devil’s Garden, we open a window on a society within a society- a community of women suspended outside of everyday reality. For this project David Hernandez and Petra Glad decided to work with a cast of women and address the subject of a female reality. As an American man creating a work for Croatian women, Hernandez took the position of a witness, the point of view of an outsider looking in, and wanted to develop an experience for the public resembling his own experience as a watcher and observer of a world outside his own. This place is a suspended metaphorical zone, existing between the lines of the male patriarchal reality of our world, where different female lives cross and interact. To create a lieu for this happening, Hernandez enlisted the help of female visual artist Zdravka Ivandija Kirigin to create the garden by designing a scenography which provides the setting for this happening, a mini universe that the performers inhabit and manipulate. For the soundscape Hernandez worked with Bojan Gagić to create an installation of sound which offers a sonic landscape in which we can feel the presence of a world outside and at the same time the resonance of this somewhat mystical place. This sound landscape is periodically pierced by layers of music from Bach’s The Art of Fugue further establishing this experience of the intersection of two world’s and realities, continually shifting the experience of the viewer as a result. In the garden we witness a kind of ritual of women’s work that is intriguing and captivating and more so because we view from the point of view of a stranger, a traveller without a map, a visitor who doesn’t speak the language but is entranced by the goings-on he encounters there.
David Hernandez was born in Miami, Florida where he studied ‘studio music & jazz’ and opera at the University of Miami and dance at New World School of the Arts. Subsequently he moved to New York to work as an apprentice with the Trisha Brown company and begin researching with Meg Stuart. He left New York to follow Meg Stuart to Belgium to help begin the company Damaged Goods where he worked for almost seven years as a dancer and collaborator. David remained in Europe basing himself in Brussels where he continued creating his own work in the form of dance performances, installations, happenings and many other sorts of multidisciplinary projects for over twenty years.
David continues to work as a singer and joined the early music vocal group Graindelavoix, led by Bjorn Smelzer, as well as Reve d’Elephant Orchestra jazz band, performing in concerts, recording discs and touring with several different projects as a musician.
