“GNOSSOS” is a creative project that explores French composer Erik Satie’s work, starting from “Gnossiennes”, his series of piano compositions written 130 years ago.
The Imago Mundi ensemble, known for its projects to re-evaluate traditional Romanian music from a contemporary perspective, set out to research Romanian-inspired French creation from the end of the 19th century – possible thanks to the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889. The project resulted in an original music album presented to the public in a video-art production signed by Florin Ghenade and Irinel Cîrlănaru.
The Imago Mundi compositions were presented to the public in a live event hosted by the Opera and Multimedia Studio of the National University of Music in Bucharest (UNMB) in November 2021, a concert visually commented through video projections mixed in real time, in a video performance with original images made by Cristian Stănoiu. Subsequently, the audio/video production was presented in multimedia showcases as well as through online distribution.
At the same time, the “GNOSSOS” project assumes an educational role, by making a series of 3 short presentation films / educational materials about the first 3 “Gnossiennes” (out of the total of 7 written by Erik Satie), presented and explained by the pianist and composer Andrei Petrache. The three films were promoted through an online and offline campaign that invited high school and university students to experience playing the piano, but also to familiarize themselves with Erik Satie’s music. Youngsters were invited to visit the ‘Gnossienne’ audio/video installation for an interactive, immersive educational experience where they could play an electronic keyboard assisted by a ‘Gnossiennes’ learning app (with illuminated keys to indicate positions correct fingers).
