During a 24 hour, non-stop working process at La Rocca, Citerna, artists Ivanov and Chan together with award-winning British composer James Hesford created painting, video and musical composition event as part of the Festival. Previous events of this type have been created in an abandoned railway roundhouse in Berlin, a floating hut on the river Thames, at the Horse Hospital – home of London’s avant-garde, on an uninhabited island at the most northerly tip of the Orkney islands. A 2.5 x 12 metre circular canvas became the centrepiece of the presentation at La Rocca supported by video and sound installations.

The painting which is visible during its creation was opened to the public by a concert performed by Fiori Musicali, the UK’s leading early music choir, who sang Gabrieli’s composition “Battaglia” and “Svyati” by Taverner.

Fiori Musicali concluded with the world premier of James Hesford’s “Papay Holm Circle” for a choir of twelve voices placed in a 30-metre circle around the canvas and surrounding violin virtuoso Elvira Bekova. This was an historic event of great magnitude as the text of “Papay Holm Circle” has been translated into Nynorn, a reconstruction of the Orkney Norn language which has not been spoken for more that two hundred years.

The project was generously supported by the Comune of Citerna and by Mayor of Citerna Juliana Falaschi and her colleagues