Collaboration with the Metaphone in the 9-9bis site, Oignies (59)
A Musical and heritage project :
The 8 musical pieces written by Alexandre Lévy pay a resounding tribute to the memory of coal miners and were inspired by the rhythm of their daily lives (arriving at the mine, changing in the locker room, etc.). those 8 musical pieces called The 12 strokes of the Métaphone were played for the European heritage day event in september 2014.
Based on industrial sound archives and testimonies, these compositions drive the sound and vibrating “skin” of that amazing building-instrument THE METAPHONE.
The artist’s intention was also to expose and convey the symbolic nature of an uncommon heritage: while retaining the memory of what the site once was – a mine (coal shafts “9” and “9bis”) – the métaphone also ushers us into the site’s next life as a unique concert hall.
Alexandre Lévy also contributed to make work this vibrating and sound "skin" and participated to the creation of a creation studio dedicated.
2014 / The 12 strokes of the Métaphone
A joint project in collaboration with the Ballet Dancing School of the North region of France
Alexandre Lévy invited the Ballet Dancing School to participate in his latest creation, “SIDE(S) – Mechanics of the Present”, which in this instance makes use of the building’s acoustic “skin” through an audio and video interactive installation.
Choreographer Pedro Pauwels created choreography composed especially for the School’s students.
2015 / SIDE(S) at the Métaphone
2016 / Project Métaphone Memories
This project aims to celebrate the unacknowledged heritage of immigrant miners of the 9-9 bis.
Alexandre Lévy wishes to pay homage to the immigrants who came to work in this coal-mining area. That new creation will be developed jointly with the Regional Cultural Center in Lille and the region’s “École Supérieure de Musique et de Dance” (ESMD). More than ever before, Lévy will liaise with the Heritage department of the region to develop the project, drawing on mining industry archives and worker testimonies that can be found in various academic works.
Throughout the course of the history of the mining area, from the mid-19th century, several generations of foreign workers and their families settled and lived in the region. They came from all over France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and, later, Eastern Europe and Northern Africa.
The “9-9 bis” will emphasize their outstanding role and cultural contribution through a musical creation around the Metaphone and a variation of it in the form of a conference-concert, which will travel through the region in collaboration with the ESMD. The project will develop in several stages scheduled through 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Le Métaphone, Exterior vibrating "skin". Oignies (59)
SIDES outside performance at the Métaphone, dec. 2015 Oignies (59)
9-9bis / the Métaphone
The “9-9 bis” site was declared Historical Monument of France in 1994, as living testimony to nearly three centuries of coal mining and industry in the North of the country. A new cultural site was built on the former mining site, around pits 9 and 9 bis. These shafts were permanently closed on December 20, 1990, and their sutdown symbolizes the end of coal-mining operations in the former Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France (now expanded and renamed Hauts-de-France). Turning these buildings into a diversified cultural center mostly dedicated to music and heritage reflects the intent to write a new page in the history of the site, by publicly supporting a strong cultural, touristic and economical initiative.
Several joint projects in collaboration with A. Lévy as composer
Promoting forward-looking projects based on the site’s two missions of heritage valorization and musical/cultural creation/education/dissemination, the “9-9 bis” became a major cultural spot on the map with the inauguration of the METAPHONE (concert hall doubling as a monumental musical instrument).
Its façades, covered with a “sounding skin,” make it a unique “meta-instrument” to spur innovative musical creation.
9-9bis mining site, Oignies (Hauts-de-France)