U p   T o   T h r e e   D o c u m e n t a t i o n

»Means of Protection« was inspired by the work of one of my favourite artists Annette Messager, who in one of her folders (file no. 28, 1972–73) collected information on security devices necessary for survival and defending herself from »bad people«. The file contains flyers, newspaper clippings, information on alarm systems, intricate door locks, weapons, life insurance etc. Messager is obsessive and suffers from persecution mania; she says that collecting things protects her from death, that »thanks to file no. 28 she feels safe…«. The piece, originally composed for voice, cello and accordion was a study to my first opera »Transcryptum«, commissioned by the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw, in which the organised, »anancastic« (non)reality of the heroine is continually being shattered into fragments of memories obsessively returning and leading to a shocking secret from the past. When ensemble mosaik invited me to »Up to Three – augmented« project I decided to experiment and combine the vocal part of »Means of Protection« (here performed on a bass flute) with an accompaniment from scene 6 from my most recent opera: »Rechnitz.Opera« based on Elfriede Jelinek’s text. The scenario of this opera is based on a play referring to dramatic events that took place at the castle of Baroness Margit von Batthyány in the Austrian town of Rechnitz towards the end of World War II. According to witnesses, during a reception given by the baroness in March 1945, her guests—officers of the local SS and Gestapo—took part in the massacre of two hundred Jewish forced workers transported from Hungary. The mass grave was never found, and the »bloody« baroness spent the rest of her life making sure that the secret from the past will never be revealed.