twilight service

Jeruzalemkerk, Amsterdam



Sunday, June 28th 2009
04:30h – 05:30h in the morning

Jeruzalemchurch
Jan Maijenplein, Amsterdam


Just before sunrise a 'twilight service' starts in the Jeruzalemchurch,
in the light of undesirable plants in the church garden.


artists:
Annet Bult
Christina Della Giustina
Wietske Maas

choirmaster:
Maritta van Woudenberg

choir:
chorus Jeruzalemchurch

organ:
Hans Jutte

vicar:
Bas van der Graaf

organisation:
Foamlab http://fo.am



prologue


The 'twilight service' in the Jerusalemchurch in Amsterdam, which starts June 28th just before sunrise, is dedicated to the recently removed plants from the church garden: the undesirable plants, the so-called weeds.

All elements that construct this service come forward from the actual surrounding in- and around the Jerusalemchurch:
- the real-time sound that can be heard every new day outside the church on the square just before sunrise;
- the church choir that takes the actual soundscape over, merging into a song, in which every strophe asks attention for one unwanted plant from the garden;
- the organ, which fills the dawn with volume;
- the drink distilled from the removed plants, which is offered at the end of the concert to all participants and drunk together;
- and the sun that rises during this approximately one hour ceremony.

With the twilight ceremony, which has come about in close cooperation with the congregation of the Jerusalemchurch,
we attempt to enable an experience that is open for the unpretentious, the undervalued, and the unknown.



Genesis 3:17-19 (English Standard Version)

17And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,'
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

18thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”



1 Corinthians 1:26-28 (English Standard Version)

26For consider your calling, brothers:
not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,
not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

27But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;
God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

28God chose what is low and despised in the world,
even things that are not,
to bring to nothing things that are,



1
Stellaria media
Chickweed

2
Matricaria discoidea
pineapple weed

3
Capsella bursa-pastoris
shepherd’s-purse

4
Vicia cracca
Tufted Vetch

5
Urtica urens
Annual Nettle

6
Cirsium vulgare
Spear Thistle

7
Rumex acetosa
Sour dock

8
Lamium purpureum
Red Deadnettle

9
Chenopodium album
Fat-Hen

10
Sinapis arvensis
Charlock

11
Plantago major
White-man's foot

12
Urtica dioica
Stinging nettle

13
Geranium robertianum
Herb Robert

14
Persicaria maculosa
Redshank

15
Sambucus nigra
European elder

16
Rosa canina
Dog-rose

17
Polygonum lapathifolium
Pale smartweed

18
Galinsoga quadriradiata
Shaggy soldier

19
Chenopodium hybridum
Mapleleaf goosefoot

20
Sisymbrium officinale
Hedge mustard

21
Myosotis arvensis
Field forget-me-not


2009 Annet Bult, Christina Della Giustina, Wietske Maas, and Foamlab

‘twilight service’ was supported by JuniKunstMaand 09, the Municipality De Baarsjes, and the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst


with thanks to:
Marritta van Woudenberg, Jantine Veenhof, Tirza van der Graaf, Nanny Roed Lauridsen, Hans Jutte, and Bas van der Graaf


‘twilight service’
Jeruzalemkerk


choir [audio]

libretto