Sedje Hémon conjured music from paintings

The name of Sedje Hémon (1923-2011) will not immediately ring a bell with everyone. She was one of the first artists to work in a multidisciplinary way, basing compositions on her own paintings. Her painting scores were recently shown at Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens, but her music has not been performed for almost four decades. The Hague-based ensemble Modelo62 is putting Hémon back on the map with the production Hidden Agreements. It will premiere at Korzo Theatre on 3 May and then tour our country.

Violinist in Auschwitz

Sedje Hémon was born in Rotterdam and started drawing at the age of three. She developed an abstract style characterised by dots, lines and planes. At eight, she spontaneously decided to become a professional violinist when she heard the famous Nathan Milstein on the radio.

During World War II, she helped boys flee to Switzerland, but was betrayed by her neighbours. She survived Auschwitz by playing violin in the camp orchestra. However, her health was so affected that she spent a long time in hospitals afterwards. There she continued to draw; she was forced to give up playing the violin. Based on her own injuries, she would later develop a successful method to combat RSI.

Music from painting

On the advice of a fellow patient, she transferred her abstract drawing techniques to canvas. Soon she was discovered and in 1955 she was given an exhibition in Paris. There, art connoisseurs were struck by the music 'hidden' in her paintings. Spurred on by this, she decided to actually make those hidden sounds audible. To this end, she developed her 'Integration Method'.

On transparent paper, she designed a grid of pitches and tone durations. She placed this on her paintings to extract the hidden 'musical data'. She then translated the whole into a resounding score. This technique recalls the dotted and line-filled transparencies John Cage used to create music in the same period. In our country, Hémon was quite unique.

Reprogramming of the body

The initiative for Hidden Agreements came from visual artist Marianna Maruyama and composer Andrius Arutiunian. Together with the Sedje Hémon Foundation and Ensemble Modelo62 hope to bring Hémon's music to life. They will play three of her compositions, two of which can be heard on Soundcloud: Harmony and Lignes Ondulatoires. These are placed in a modern context with new works inspired by her artistic ideas.

Maruyama was inspired by Hémon's RSI prevention course, a 'reprogramming of the body'. Because of her camp injuries, Hémon gained a deep understanding of the body in relation to music-making. She taught others to relieve and prevent pain by using the body in an optimal way. Fascinated by Hémon's exercises, Maruyama developed choreographic instructions for Modelo62's musicians.

Website as interactive score

For his part, Andrius Arutiunian is reopening Hémon's virtual-reality world. In 2007 - she was already over eighty! - she launched a virtual museum. This consisted of fragments and shapes from her painting scores and was filled with her artworks and her music. Arutiunian uses the museum's website as an interactive score.

The virtual reality museum is projected on a large screen behind the musicians. They give a musical interpretation of the various rooms, while the conductor 'walks' through the museum. The programme's trailer is particularly tasteful. It also makes it painfully clear how unjustified it is that we hear and see Hémon's work so rarely.

Unfortunately I have to miss the premiere, but fortunately more performances of Hidden Agreements. Go see that, go hear that!

Korzo 3 May, 8.30pm: Hidden Agreements. Info and tickets here

I spoke to Sedje Hémon at length for my biography of Reinbert de Leeuw. Many of her facts did not make it into the book; I hope to devote another separate blog to this.