Aljafería: 6 Miradas

Six rooms of the palace were assigned to six composers in chronological order of construction. Each room was, at the same time, associated with a different area of the surrounding region of Aragón. These associations were made based either on historical, aesthetic, or conceptual details. The composers then received a brief document explaining the history of the building and of each room, as well as the concept behind the relationship with its surrounding landscapes. The composers were requested to draw inspiration from the history of the building and their assigned rooms, through the facilitated visual material, in order to compose a cue of approximately 3 minutes in duration, that should reflect the history and essence of each space in the palace according to their own individual vision and musical voice. The intention of this project was to create an audiovisual portrait of the palace of ‘Aljaferia’ as seen through the eyes of the six composers coming from different nationalities. A performance of these pieces was then filmed with a live ensemble in each room, and recorded separately in a recording studio. In addition to this, the selection of landscapes was captured from the air with the use of a drone over a period of 10 days. Aljaferia – 6 Miradas is an amalgam of images and music that reflects a very different vision of the palace of Aljaferia, as the building evolves through its history while shaping the landscapes in which it exists.