In the Name of the People

The entrance halls of court buildings are often among the most impressive examples of a city’s architecture. The stonework and ornamentation create an intimidating backdrop that makes the accused feel small and guilty even before they enter the courtroom. The vast scale of the entrances, their imposing architecture and echoing acoustics, make courthouses reminiscent of churches or cathedrals.

Here, where the law is re-interpreted every day, where hundreds of defendants, lawyers, prosecutors, judges and visitors hurry to their appointments, Christian Garcia stages an amateur choir of amateur singers from the city, who give an a capella rendition of a Renaissance liturgy, which they translate into movement. An encounter between the spiritual tradition of choral singing and a more or less secular institution.

This performance will confront the spiritual tradition of religion to the secular surroundings of a civil institution and is part of the “Ciudades Paralelas” project, developped by Lola Arias and Stefan Kaegi for the cities of Berlin, Buenos Aires and Zürich.