When the war Ukraine-Russia (invasion or special operation), i first thought that it’s important for me to be able to react, to testify. Not that artists have the power (and does it belong to art?) to change the world, but it’s also discouraging not to be able to connect to an event which is happening so close to us.

It soon appeared that confronting testimonies about this conflict was not possible: the situation was (and still is) too sensitive and raises endless debates.

I then rethought the central topic to open it to the more general question of: how do political or economical changes of frontiers affect our lives? Whether it is physical borders (walls, check points, mines) or political and symbolic (frontiers, passports) the violence is never far.

We then collected a set of REAL stories and events: the musicians of Lucilin told me some real stories of their personal lives or relatives; we found documents about a man in Siberia who walked for 3000 km towards Moscow with the intention of exorcizing Putin, we discovered that groups of self-called “witches” meet on a regular basis to accomplish rituals supposed to help the action of Putin, i found out (thanks to a lecture by Zizek) that the American army is deeply preoccupied by the soil pollution provoked by the bullets, therefore develops biodegradable ones, i found out that one can freely buy surveillance systems and weapons advertised on YouTube under the name of MUSIC, and much more that didn’t find place in the show.

All this is available to anyone who wishes to see it.

So Les murs meurent aussi EXCLUSIVELY presents real and existing devices and phenomenons, however not in the style of a documentary theater show, ie not necessarily in a realistic way.

This discrepancy might provoke doubt, or smile, but shouldn’t make us lose sight on the brutality they contain, and the number of deaths they imply.
(François Sarhan)

François Sarhan (*1972) studied composition in Paris. The French composer, author, visual artist, and filmmaker is also the director of his own music theatre works as well as multimedia pieces, in which he often performs himself. He worked with South African artist William Kentridge on Telegrams from the Nose, which has been shown over 30 times at major festivals and events across Europe.

Sarhan has taught at IRCAM Paris and Marc-Bloch University in Strasbourg. Exhibitions of his visual works (videos, collages, and art books) have been presented in Johannesburg, Paris, Prague, and Ghent, among others. He is interested in the interpretation and dissemination of knowledge, for example, in his book series Encyclopaedia, in which he parodies the knowledge of universities.

He works with found objects (public documents, spoken voice, collages) in an approach that combines collage, improvisation, automatic writing, and criticism in a theoretical or communicative manner.

Since 2024, he has been teaching at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. François Sarhan lives in Berlin.

The ensemble for contemporary music United Instruments of Lucilin was founded in 1999 by a group of passionate and committed musicians and is the only Luxembourgish chamber music ensemble specialised in contemporary music. Dedicated exclusively to promoting and commissioning works of the 20th and 21st century, United Instruments of Lucilin is now known for its outstanding programs around the world.

In about 40 concerts a year, Lucilin presents a broad scope of musical events, ranging from “traditional” concerts to music theatre productions, children projects, improvisation sessions as well as discussions with composers.

United Instruments of Lucilin works in close collaboration with the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg in the field of contemporary opera and music theatre projects and premiered, among others, Toshio Hosokawa’s monodrama The Raven with Charlotte Hellekant, Philippe Manoury’s «thinkspiel» Kein Licht staged by Nicolas Stemann, and recently Adam Maor’s opera The Sleeping Thousand, premiered at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (France).

United Instruments of Lucilin organises every year, together with neimënster and the rainy days festival (Philharmonie Luxembourg), the Luxembourg Composition Academy, the only composition masterclass held in Luxembourg, and invites eight young composers to work on a brand new piece.

Over the years, United Instruments of Lucilin is continuously reaching a growing enthusiastic audience and has been encouraging innovative musical expressions, as with Black Mirror, an immersive experience taking place in an abandoned hotel, commissioned to Alexander Schubert and premiered in 2016 during the Philharmonie Luxembourg’s rainy days festival, another major partner of the ensemble. In May 2022, the ensemble premiered Sleep Laboratory, Alexander Schubert’s last immersive project with VR at the Achtbrücken festival in Cologne.

Lately, United Instruments of Lucilin has commissioned works to James Dillon, Fatima Fonte, Giulia Lorusso, Philippe Manoury, Sonja Mutić, François Sarhan, Igor Silva and Stefan Prins.