Bartók in Space and Time, Brussels, Belgium

On 20 September 2024, arts centre Bozar hosted “Bartók in Space and Time,” a concert in which Robbrecht en Daem architecten mirrored the music of Béla Bartók in space. Conductor Gábor Káli and Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen performed Bartók's “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta” (1937), while that composition also showed itself spatially in five objects floating above the audience and orchestra.

For this, Robbrecht en Daem went to work on Bartók's rhythmic principles and used geometry as a response to the music. Thus, the horizontal and vertical surfaces of the objects became walls and floors; the spaces between them was the rhythm in the music. Through thoughtful lighting design, the evolutions in the music were made visible through the floating objects. Typical of this composition by Bartók, for example, the string orchestra is arranged in perfect symmetry around the celesta. The effect of that alternating string orchestra also showed itself in the play of light above the heads of the audience.

Like Robbrecht en Daem, Béla Bartók was mesmerized by numbers; he hid the Fibonacci sequence in his compositions. Within this project, two mathematical sequences come together: that of Fibonacci and the Louie sequence of Robbrecht en Daem. 

The concert was part of Bozar's “Staging the Concert” programme, which aims to give a new dimension to the concert experience by allowing different art forms to interact with each other. Robbrecht en Daem was the first to engage in this cross-pollination for the opening concert of the new season. Moreover, the intervention entered into conversation not only with Bártok's music, but also with the magnificent Henry Le Boeuf Hall of the Palace of Fine Arts, designed by Victor Horta. The architects interpreted this concert hall as a micro-universe. To maximize the spatial experience, the audience was given the opportunity to move around and watch the concert from two different points of view. To this end, the piece of music was played twice in succession. That repetition allowed visitors to understand the music even better, sharpen the sensory experience and make the concert a total immersion.