KMSKA LATE - Gerrit Valckenaers

Lecture by Gerrit Valckenaers in the context of the exhibition A Red that Sings. Masterpieces by Ensor, Wouters and Schmalzigaug.

What if colors could sound – and sounds could become visible? In this richly illustrated lecture, Gerrit Valckenaers takes you on a fascinating journey through the history of the interplay between seeing and hearing. Using image projections and musical excerpts, he explores how artists and composers across the centuries have sought a common language of color and sound.

The journey begins with Isaac Newton, who already drew connections between color gradations and musical intervals. It continues through the modernist experiments of the Bauhaus and the radical imagination of Futurism, where artists aimed to blend the senses and dissolve the boundaries between disciplines.

At the center lies the intriguing phenomenon of synesthesia: the ability to merge sensory impressions. Composers such as Alexander Scriabin dreamed of total works of art in which music, color, and light merge. His visionary light projections – designed as an integral part of his music – open a world in which sound literally becomes visible.

Music also takes on a pronounced color dimension in the work of Olivier Messiaen: his harmonies are infused with personal, almost mystical experiences of color. In the twentieth century, spectral composers like Gérard Grisey and Luc Brewaeys continued this tradition, approaching sound as a spectrum closely related to light and color.

Throughout the lecture, Valckenaers draws surprising connections with works from A Red that Sings, showing how visual art and music mutually influence each other. The result is an immersive journey through ideas, experiments, and sensory imagination, in which seeing and hearing constantly challenge and enrich one another.
 

Gerrit Valckenaers is a musicologist, lecturer in music history, and radio producer at Klara, where he co-produces the program Valckenaers & Vanhoudt. He is a member of the group The Colorist. In 2024, his book Tumult: The Music of the Twentieth Century in 32 Masterpieces was published. In 2026, a new edition of Venice: The Sound of the City, created in collaboration with Eric Min, will be released.