Mocrep + Natacha Diels: A Square is Not a Bee
Single-channel HD video | 16′24″
A Square is Not a Bee is a short film Mocrep co-created with composer Natacha Diels. Diels originally composed the musical score for A Square is Not a Bee in 2016 on a commission from Mocrep. Mocrep presented the world premiere in February 2016 at the Museum of Contemporary Art during the Frequency Festival. In 2018, Diels and Mocrep recorded the piece and collaboratively created an accompanying video. Performed by Diels and Mocrep, directed by Diels, and edited by Diels and Mocrep members Zach Moore and Ryan Zerna.
Mocrep is a Chicago-based collective creating inter- and intra-disciplinary performance work: music, theater, videos, events, zines, internet happenings, meals, new media and basically anything they can get their hands on. Their work responds to the issues, paradoxes, and humor inherent in contemporary culture and relationships. They have performed at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Arts Club of Chicago, and held residencies at Stanford University, Mills College, dfbrl8r Art Gallery, and Mana Contemporary Chicago.
Collective: Jenna Lyle, Zach Moore, Andrew Tham, Chris Wood, Ryan Zerna, Amanda Bailey, Owen Davis, Alex Ellsworth, Zachary Good, Deidre Huckabay, Lia Kohl
Natacha Diels’ work combines choreographed movement, improvisation, video, instrumental practice, and cynical play to create worlds of curiosity and unease. Recent work includes Papillon and the Dancing Cranes, for construction cranes and giant butterfly (Borealis Festival 2018); and forthcoming is a 6-part TV-style miniseries with the JACK quartet (TimeSpans Festival 2020) and a collaborative work for shadowed audience with Ensemble Pamplemousse (Darmstadt 2020). With a focus on collage, collaboration, and the ritual of life as art, Natacha’s compositions have been described as “a fairy tale for a fractured world” (Music We Care About) and “the liveliest music of the evening” (LA Review of Books).
Natacha is a founding member of the composer/performer collective Ensemble Pamplemousse (est. 2003). Pamplemousse specializes in unique aspects of new music composition, from complex virtuosic instrumental performance to experimental theatre to electronic and robotic performance.
Notable commissions include those from Borealis Festival for the aforementioned crane opera; the Fromm Foundation for an upcoming work for Talea Ensemble (2021); Nadar Ensemble for Darmstadt International Summer Institute [performed installation: I Love Myself Fully and Unconditionally] (2018); the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the green Umbrella Series [Laughing to Forget] (2018); and Deustchland Radio Kultur in Berlin for Ensemble Adapter [Sad Music for Lonely People] (2019). Other major activities include being chosen as artist-in-residence for Harvestworks in partnership with MATA festival (summer 2019) and a release by Ensemble Pamplemousse (Lost at Sea, TAK Editions 2019). Natacha’s work has been performed globally by Ensemble Adapter, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Nadar Ensemble, hand werk, Ensemble Decoder, TAK Ensemble, Quatuor Impact, JACK Quartet; and soloists Jay Campbell, Laura Cocks, Samuel Favre, Ross Karre, Rane Moore, and Charlotte Mundy, among others. She has created several short films and music videos which have been screened in Denmark, NYC, Chicago, Budapest, and Hungary.