Alchemists of Sound is a collaborative sonic intervention at Henry Moore’s Two-Piece Reclining Figure: Points in Düsseldorf’s Hofgarten, inspired by Delia Derbyshire’s title theme for a BBC documentary feature about the artist. Both the documentary and the purchase of Moore’s sculpture for the city of Düsseldorf took place around the sculptor’s seventieth birthday in 1968. Drawing on Derbyshire’s techniques and the materiality of Moore’s bronze, Antonia Alessia Virginia Beeskow and Lilli Lake will develop a site-specific performance that transforms the sculpture into a resonant body. Relying on touch, vibration, field recordings, and sampled sounds, their intervention will interweave layers of live and archival audio, allowing Moore’s forms and Derbyshire’s sonic legacy to interact in real time.
Keta Gavasheli, in close dialogue with the performers, will trace the vibrations and resonances on video. Her contribution will premiere on Thursday, November 27, 2025, as part of the Approximation Festival.
The performance at 2pm will take place at the Henry Moore sculpture in the Hofgarten, right behind the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Around 2:30pm, the event will move into the lobby of Deutschen Oper am Rhein.
![ELA EIS, Miracle Whip [Befreit], 1979, Filmstill](/sites/default/files/styles/custom_desktop_crop/public/media/images/2024-04/Ela_Eis.jpg?h=ffef0b99&itok=FSVcjGDy "ELA EIS, Miracle Whip [Befreit], 1979, Filmstill, © ELA EIS, 2024")
