Streams flow through exquisite landscapes. Loving relatives gather tenderly at the bedsides of their dying grandparents. Great birds circle the heavens. So far, so vivid – images that might well spring to mind when you hear the Fauré Requiem.
But wait. Those are not eagles, but vultures; and in the post-apocalyptic tower block in which we’re eavesdropping, the burial ground is… upstairs. Fantasia this ain’t. Mat Collishaw’s Sky Burial, a film installation set to the Fauré and designed to be coordinated with a live performance, pulls no punches in terms of content. A ‘sky burial’ is a tradition found in Tibet or remote regions of Turkey, which lack permeable ground for burials and wood for cremation, and so entrust the disposal of their deceased to the birds.
The initial idea came Collishaw’s way several years ago from the conductor Teodor Currentzis, who asked if the artist would consider creating an installation for a project co-produced by the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris. Having done nothing like it before, Collishaw agreed, though felt he was taking
