Song for Armageddon

This week we present a three day sceening of Song for Armageddon at The Baltic, Gateshead.  Five years in the making, the film was shot at Armageddon, a place in northern Israel that lends its name to the end of the world. A UNESCO World Heritage Site known by its modern name Tel Megiddo, Armageddon is thought to have seen more battles than any other location in the world, and dominated the crossroads of ancient trade and military routes linking Egypt with Mesopotamia.

A hellish sodium-lit environment provides the setting for  Song for Armageddon, shot on location at Tel Megiddo and made in collaboration with Israeli composer Ophir Ilzetzki. Over one night, a group of workers endlessly set out and wipe down thousands of chairs to create a large auditorium for an unknown audience, waiting for sunrise. In an age of Trump, Putin and climate change, with globalisation and wars - civil and otherwise - racking the globe, this work is a chance to return to the source of ‘end times’ iconography. Armageddon is a nexus of metaphysics and geopolitics.

Song for Armageddon was made in collaboration with Ophir Ilzetzki. Cinematography by Martin Testar. 

Commissioned by Forma and the University of Salford Art Collection, in association with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Supported by Arts Council England.