With Black Rainbow, I am not only presenting a personal story of my family but also a powerful reflection on migration and identity - Where are we going and where do we belong? As the voices of generations of my ancestors move into a future-like sounds I raise a question of the endless cyclic character of the destiny of humankind.’ - Quo Vadis Homini? Where are we going?

Working on Black Rainbow challenged me to go through a very narrow ‘channel of birth into the past’ - going deep into the questions of identity, both mine and the identity of the characters involved. Feeling the pain and the question of self-worth influenced purely by circumstantial moving through the space and interacting with cultures that challenges ones identity, form languages and habits…

…These mixed identities that form my Ancestral Code - an issue in a form of a question ‘Where do we belong?’, that is deeply rooted and specific to the region covering central Europe and the Balkans motivated me to step out of my comfort zone as a violinist and create a composition together with Akim Moiseenkov. It is a multi-dimensional experience which I prefer to call Story in Sound. Although my primary tool is sound and the tools are derived from the sounds of the violin and the recorded voices (of my great-great great-grandmother, my mother and my voice both acoustic and in use of the sound-effect using a contact microphone on my neck), I think of this work as conceptual art-form. The use of my body is both as a violin player a singer and also as a stage performing presence.

Julija Hartig - viool/stem
Akim Moissenkov - live elektronica
Soundtrack stem: Julia Kovacs en Julia Bisak

Commissioned by the Nederlandse Vioolconcoursen for the Night of the Violin 2025

Premiere/live recording op de Festival Nacht van de Viool op 31. januarie 2025 in de Cloud Nine in TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht