Maria de’ Medici and Maria Stuart

Dewi de Vree
Patrizia Ruthensteiner


“Maria de’ Medici and Maria Stuart” is a Post-Elizabethanian electromagnetic tragedy based on the royal Medici-collar or the Stuart-collar, a historic clothing element which functions as an audible lace. An antenna which picks up radio waves and makes them audible through electronic sounds.

The synergetic object of de- and re-territorialization functions as the instrument of global regency of the electromagnetic spectrum. The performance will each time result in a different sonic event and composition, determined by the signals that are present on the specific location and modulated by the movements of the wearer relative to the space, and each other.

Its name refers to the economic and aesthetic concurrence and the confessional conflicts of late 16th regimes in Europe. These issues have found their manifestation as a ‘war of the golden lace’, carried out by two of the most influential political figures of european monarchy.

Maria de’ Medici and Maria Stuart might have never met in time and space physically, their commonalities remain as the utmost political power and failure, flight to exile and denationalization and death in poverty.

Audible gates to the invisible phenomena of the momentary situation are being opened up, immersing the audience not only into a broad incalculable sound spectrum but also a holistic and irreproducible synesthetic experience.

Maria de’ Medici and Maria Stuart is part of a series of works by Magnetoceptia (Dewi de Vree and Patrizia Ruthensteiner).