FLAMMENWERFER is Hotel Pro Forma’s new music theatre performance created by the directors Kirsten Dehlholm and Marie Dahl, composers, and musicians Blixa Bargeld and Nils Frahm, artist and fashion designer Henrik Vibskov, light designer Jesper Kongshaug, video designer Magnus Pind and sound designer Erik Medeiros.

On stage are Blixa Bargeld and the award-winning vocal ensemble IKI consisting of Johanna Sulkunen, Guro Tveitnes, Kamilla Kovacs, Randi Pontoppidan and Jullie Hjetland. 

FLAMMENWERFER is inspired by the life and art of the famous Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Hill (1849-1911). As a young man, Hill moved from Sweden to Paris to establish himself as an artist. His dream of success bursts in 1878 when his friends brought him to the Maison de Sante where he was diagnosed with schizophrenic paranoia. Thereafter, he spent years in numerous hospitals, both in Denmark and Sweden, before returning to his childhood home in Lund, where his mother and sister cared for him. Here he lived isolated from the outside world and worked manically and constantly, creating a prolific body of work, often inspired by the magazines of the time.

His art functioned as depictions of his fluctuating reality, and partly as incantations against the evil that pursued him. Hill saw himself as both victim and savior. His pictures are beautiful, poignant, and strong. The dissolution of reality, as he experienced it, permeates over 4,000 works he created during his years of illness. “It was absolutely like nothing we had ever seen, not even in historic or contemporary art”, described by his friend Georg Pauli. FLAMMENWERFER is based on a selection of works from these years.

The music for FLAMMENWERFER is composed by the world-renowned German composers and musicians Blixa Bargeld and Nils Frahm. With new compositions and lyrics Blixa Bargeld performs on stage side by side with the award-winning vocal ensemble IKI. Hotel Pro Forma and Nils Frahm have collaboratively chosen numerous compositions from his atmospheric, modern, and electronic classic for FLAMMENWERFER. Sound design by Erik Medeiros.

Director Marie Dahl’s texts and vocal compositions are sung layered over Nils Frahm’s music by the vocal ensemble IKI. Scenography and costumes are created by the fashion designer and artist Henrik Vibskov, who has exhibited in museums worldwide and created costumes for several of Hotel Pro Forma’s performances in the past. Video designer Magnus Pind and Hotel Pro Forma have collaborated with Malmö Art Museum, who owns an extensive collection of Carl Fredrik Hill’s work, that will be shown as large-format video projections. 

Lighting by the Danish light designer Jesper Kongshaug, who has an extensive history of working with Hotel Pro Forma and who will once again ensure that the lighting design is an equal performer and integral part of the performance.

FLAMMENWERFER is created in co-production with Malmö Live Concert Hall in collaboration with Malmö Art Museum and celebrated its world premiere on March 8-9, 2024.

Following performances are at The Concert Hall of Aarhus for the Aarhus Festival on August 30-31 and the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen on September 26-28, 2024.

photos ©Emma Larsson