The art of containment: music and painting for oxygen

Online concerts, virtual visits to museums, remote orchestras, dance classes, etc. Containment to protect the populations of the Covid-19 opens windows to the world of art. Impossible to list everything in one article, but here are some ways to see other walls than that of his home, and open his ears to more serene harmonies than the count of victims of the coronavirus.

Music continues, played alone or with others

Many musicians register at home, with the means at hand. Like pianist David Kadouch, who posts a piece of his choice recorded in his work room on Twitter daily. Cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton also offers collaboration with friendly musicians every day.

Spring without leaving home with Bill Evans (Waltz for Debby) pic.twitter.com/yoMUWF4eiO

Day 15 - with Françoise Rivalland - "Cadence" pic.twitter.com/D6ZunfG5CD

They are also actors who expose themselves on social networks, such as Judith Chemla and Philippe Torreton.

[The Bouffes du Nord come to you]

Some artists who participate in the life of the Theater have agreed to share a few moments of their confinement.

We start with Judith Chemla, our Violetta in "Traviata, You deserve a better future", available on vimeo. pic.twitter.com/9LSjew8IBA

Poetry, Fernando Pessoa (whom I love so much!) With an excerpt from the “Keeper of the herd”. # ConfinementJour14 #poesie #RestezChezVous pic.twitter.com/exSEoWKUWa

Music together? Very difficult to exercise on a daily basis, collective practice seems to be postponed until after deconfinement. Except when an engineer manages to assemble sounds recorded on telephone or computer, and to draw a spark of emotion. Some nuggets come out of the Web, like an interpretation to 45 singers and musicians of the song "La Tendresse", by Bourvil, or a shortened version of Ravero's Boléro played by the instrumentalists of the National Orchestra of France which gives the thrill. Sound engineer and videographer Dimitri Scapolan is at work behind this feat, to reconstruct an orchestral mass.

Concert halls and opera houses have taken the initiative to put many recordings online, to savor from their sofa, without forgetting ArteConcert's online resources. Even the great choreographers make their art accessible, like this tutorial for dancing your own version of "Rosas danst Rosas", a creation by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. All you need is yourself and a chair.

Painting too

pic.twitter.com/tmzjiW0CdL

When the diversions of works of art flourish on the Web, it is also possible to appreciate these masterpieces in their original version, especially since museums are now just a click away.

The interface "Google arts & culture", which finds all its meaning in this time of confinement. The project is pharaonic and dizzying, it is the pooling of the great museums of the world in this interface, ranging from the Caen Memorial to the decorative museum in Prague to the ruins of the temple of Tikal, in Guatemala. Several virtual tours are planned in French and easy to explore with the family. Themes "animals" or "Harry Potter" are highlighted to interest children, and encourage them to enter the interface.

Museums in France have been opening their doors for a long time on the Web, and the offer has recently been enriched by podcasts at the Center Pompidou focusing on the masterpieces of the Beaubourg museum. The podcast series was named "VIP, Very Important Pieces", in the form of a conversation between a reporter and a speaker for each work. The online effort is also bearing fruit for the collections of the museums of the City of Paris which have been brought together in a single site, with close-ups of works and thematic entries.

The virtual entrance to the Prado Museum in Madrid is commensurate with the vastness of the museum and its collection: an extraordinary dive into the history of art. A long chronology of art is proposed, to wander intelligently in the recesses of the various pictorial currents.

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