Big Achy Love involves a correspondence between Italian visual artist Claudia Vitari, Australian writer Nick Angel, and German musician, Kati Brien in relation to Nick’s dark fairytale Big Achy Love about the second world war. This three-way correspondence took place recently, during lockdown.

Claudia Virginia Vitari ordinarily works as an installation and mixed-media artist. Her projects are based on a study of total institutions, telling the story of marginalised groups of people. “I felt intrigued by the challenge of collaborating with artists from different disciplines. Illustrating the story meant both working on deep and socially involved matters, but with a lighter poetic view: a different and interesting format”.

Nick Angel is an award winning novelist from Australia residing in Berlin. “The correspondence began with my surrounds. I felt I had to address Germany’s past. I wrote the story after visiting Birkenau and reading the Italian writer, Primo Levi’s letters. Then I shared it with Claudia Vitari and Kati Brien. It’s been fantastic to work with others to transform a written text into a visual and audible one. Kati’s score invites you into an instantly recognisable world, whilst lending it both gravitas, delight and horror. Claudia’s sketches invite wonder and open up a window for your imagination.”

Kati Brien is a multi-instrumentalist, virtuoso saxophone player and composer of original music and scores for various arts projects. Since 2019 she has been the lead-alto-player of the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra. “It was a new challenge to compose a score transcending the characters’ emotions. I used clarinet hinting at a Klezmer theme, piano, harp, saxophone, percussive instruments, vocals, kalimba and strings.” 


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Nick Angel