An audiovisual installation by Daniel Cross at Utrecht Lokaal.
Exhibitions
Minami-no-tori
“Nothing is heavier than gold when you’re drowning.”
Minami-Torishima (Southern Bird Island) is a tiny Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean where, according to scientists, a seemingly infinite quantity of rare metals lies 6,000 metres beneath the seabed. All the metals needed for smartphones, wind turbines, batteries and computers. These REMs ( rare-earth metals) are the holy grail of the modern age. But extracting these resources causes immense damage to the oceans and all marine life. Minami-no-tori sings of the bittersweet reality of a society that, consumed by greed, is driving itself to ruin. Humanity keeps dreaming of bigger and better things, until the Earth and the universe take matters back into their own hands.
As well as being a film, Minami-no-tori (Southern Bird) is also an audiovisual installation. You walk through a space with eight large screens. Each screen shows a singer, and together they form an eight-part choir. Right in the middle, you find yourself immersed in a sea of voices, with all eight voices sounding equally loud.
About Daniel Cross
Daniel Cross is a Utrecht-based percussionist and composer who interweaves sound, language and theatre. As a co-founder of the leading Rosa Ensemble, he spent many years shaping a distinctive body of work in which stories sound, resonate and move between music and performance. Cross is always searching for a balance between sound, image, movement and meaning. According to him, the visual elements are just as important as the sound. ‘You have two ears and two eyes, so when you make music, remember those eyes too. You receive just as much information through them.’
About Gaudeamus Festival
Innovation and progress come from the ground up. That is why, since 1945, Gaudeamus has showcased, encouraged and supported young, emerging composers, musicians and interdisciplinary artists.
The annual Gaudeamus Festival is the Netherlands’ premier festival for musical adventurers. Five days of concerts, interdisciplinary performances and sound installations, packed with unheard sounds and radical new inventions in sound and performance art—without boundaries or blinkers—by young, up-and-coming composers, musicians and creators, in Utrecht city centre and beyond.
Featured in Utrecht Lokaal
This exhibition will be on view at Utrecht Lokaal from 11 September 2026. The exhibition space is located on the first floor of the Klooster. Work by Utrecht-based artists is exhibited here.
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