Embryology and perinatology, a body inside another body, the ever-changing, yet long-lasting relationship between the mother and the fetus, womb, as a tabernacle, the mystical algorithm of procreation. Those are the ideological fields of the piece “Sarx”: the scientific and the sacral one. “Sarx” in Greek means the material body, the flesh. This word, that is also used in The New Testament, creates a forceful image of the living bread – the body of Christ.
In the composition the formation of a new body of the fetus (saxophone) is contrasted with the body of the mother: (orchestra) mature, yet experiencing micro-changes during the pregnancy. The evolvement of the new body is based on the development stages of a fetus; the piece reflects the fundamental milestones of the fetus’s maturation: the formation and functioning of the organs and organ systems, development of the heart, frequency of the heartbeat, cell multiplication speed, changes in the weight and mobility of the fetus during different stages. One week of pregnancy is equated to 15 seconds in the piece, so the audience takes part in the genesis of a single body.
The music shall be accompanied by a live-streamed visualization. The viewers are presented with an image laboratory where in various test tubes and flasks an embryo is animated, the structure of the umbilical cord, the amniotic fluid, and the tissue of the uterine wall are being researched. In the live video projection the medical material gets transformed into images, that capture the contemporary shifts of the complicated relationship between the body and the spirit. The composer Juta Pranulytė also takes part in the real-time creation of the visuals, as the moment of shift between the images is for her to choose.