North Variations – The Twelve, 2019

For Federico Albanese’s soundtrack
Charcoal on paper, 120 × 278 cm
Triptych
© K37 Studio, Bethanien Art Center, Berlin

Text by noT

North Variations – The Twelve is a charcoal triptych by Jorge da Cruz, developed as a visual response to The Twelve, a musical project by Italian composer Federico Albanese. Drawing on themes of memory, displacement, resilience, and ancestral knowledge, the work establishes a dialogue between music and visual art. Rather than illustrating individual compositions, da Cruz translates elements of their atmosphere and narrative into three interconnected images, exploring the relationship between landscape, human presence, and cultural memory.

Albanese's The Twelve brings together musical compositions inspired by individuals, personal experiences, and cultural traditions. Through these references, the music examines how knowledge and memory are carried between generations, often through practices, gestures, and ways of living that remain closely connected to particular places. For da Cruz, these subjects provide the starting point for a drawing in which different landscapes and human experiences coexist within a single composition.

The work is organised as a triptych, a format traditionally associated with religious painting but also widely used in contemporary art to establish relationships between separate images. Each of the three panels presents a distinct scene, while their arrangement creates a continuous visual narrative. The composition develops through contrasts between stability and movement, physical distance and human proximity, and the different ways in which people relate to their surroundings.

The left panel presents a Nordic landscape characterised by an open horizon and a relatively stable arrangement of natural elements. Its quiet atmosphere suggests a close relationship between human presence and the environment. Rather than depicting an untouched or uninhabited landscape, the image introduces a sense of continuity, where the land becomes a place shaped by time, experience, and adaptation to natural conditions.

In the right panel, this apparent stability gives way to a more fragmented composition. Houses appear displaced from their foundations, human figures occupy uncertain positions, and the relationship between buildings and landscape becomes less defined. These elements introduce references to migration, displacement, and the search for belonging. The scene does not represent a specific historical event, but brings together visual suggestions of movement and the changing relationship between people and the places they inhabit.

The central panel establishes a different relationship between the human figure and its surroundings. Two figures stand with their arms raised, directing their gestures upwards. Their positions suggest an act of communication, although its purpose remains uncertain. The gesture may recall prayer, an appeal, or an attempt to establish contact with something beyond the immediate scene. Its ambiguity allows the figures to occupy a space between physical action and symbolic expression without committing the image to a particular religious interpretation.

Behind them rises a large vertical form, whose appearance suggests both a monument and an undefined human or spiritual presence. This element provides a visual connection between the three panels, establishing a central structure around which the different scenes can be understood. Its relationship with the figures and surrounding landscapes introduces questions about memory, inherited knowledge, and the symbols through which communities preserve their histories.

Among the musical references that informed the drawing is Albanese's encounter with Lyudmila Khomovna, a woman of the Uilta people in Siberia. Her story, as presented by the composer, introduces a relationship between human resilience, cultural continuity, and life in demanding environmental conditions. The contrast between the severity of the landscape and the warmth of personal experience became an important reference for the atmosphere of North Variations.

Another influence comes from The Stars We Follow, a composition associated with Aoki Hiroyuki in Japan. His practice, rooted in martial arts, introduces ideas of movement, concentration, and the pursuit of direction. These references contribute to the relationship between the panels, where questions of physical movement, personal experience, and inherited traditions are explored through different visual situations.

Charcoal plays an important role in bringing these elements together. Its tonal range allows da Cruz to move between detailed human figures, broad landscape formations, and areas where forms gradually dissolve into shadow. The material provides the possibility of constructing solid, recognisable elements while leaving others partially undefined. This approach creates a visual relationship between the physical presence of the figures and the less tangible subjects of memory and cultural transmission.

The triptych format also allows the drawing to develop through separate but related moments. Unlike a single continuous landscape, the three panels introduce changes in scale, atmosphere, and spatial organisation. Their relationship does not depend on a chronological sequence. Instead, each scene contributes to a wider composition in which different experiences of place, movement, and belonging can be considered together.

North Variations – The Twelve reflects da Cruz's interest in developing images through encounters with other artistic disciplines. Music becomes a starting point for drawing, not through direct illustration, but through the interpretation of subjects and experiences that emerge from Albanese's compositions.

The work brings together landscape, displacement, human gestures, and monumental forms to examine how cultural memory is preserved and transformed. Through its three panels, da Cruz considers the relationship between people and their environments, the persistence of inherited knowledge, and the ways in which individual experiences become part of a broader collective history.

noT