Name: Mirage: An Architectural Sonic Experience // World Premiere @ Grand Teatret // CAFx
Start: 2025-09-28T19:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-09-28T20:15:00+02:00
Location: Grand Teatret

$Mirage: An Architectural Sonic Experience \/\/ World Premiere @ Grand Teatret \/\/ CAFx$

Experience the unusual music film, "Mirage", a cinematic deep-listening at Grand Teatret—where architecture becomes one with the performer, breathing and playing.
"Mirage" is a radical meditation on sound, light, space, and material, where Taiwanese-Danish percussionist and composer Ying-Hsueh Chen becomes a “sound medium,” channeling the unique acoustic voices of three iconic Danish landmarks: the solemn Grundtvig’s Church, the stark Brønshøj Water Tower, and the lushly colorful Thorvaldsens Museum.
Classically trained yet profoundly influenced by traditions from all over the world, Chen composes and improvises on-site, using both primitive and classical instruments to uncover the hidden sonic languages of these spaces. The rattling of windows, the resonance of towering pipes, and the metallic tones of spiral staircases become solo instruments, while distant airplane hums and shifting light becomes part of the architectural symphony. Her way of performing evoke the sonic essence of each space, allowing the architecture to transcend its static form and become an active participant.
Sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard records and designs the acoustics to bring out the character of each room and instruments , while cinematographer Christian Houge Laursen’s evocative visuals and lighting accentuate the architecture’s intrinsic beauty. Through a dynamic interplay of shadow, color, rhythm, and reverberation, the work creates a multi-sensory experience where buildings come alive as performers.
"Mirage" is directed and edited by Danish Artist Rikke Benborg, who visually and sonically reimagines Chens improvisation and recomposes the material to a gesamtkunstwerk. The interplay of shadow, color, rhythm, and reverberation creates a multi-sensory experience.
Film supported by Statens Kunstfond, Augustinus Fonden, and Koda Kultur, with special thanks to Copenhagen Architecture Biennial and Grand Teatret for making this event possible.