Programme, Esch2022 - news
Espaces22: Immersive Jazz at Socle C
Socle C is one of many ‘Espaces22’, those places and venues that will be spread over the entire Esch2022 territory and will elucidate the full diversity of a European Capital of Culture.
The Belval blast furnaces, the last of their kind in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, bear witness to an important period in the country’s history. Listed in the Supplementary Inventory of National Sites and Monuments in July 2000 as a national cultural heritage to be preserved, the site is partly open to the public and forms part of the tremendous Belval urban renewal plan.
Blast furnace C, which stopped operating on 19 January 1995, was dismantled and sold to China in 1996. The foundation of Blast Furnace C – known as ‘Socle C’ – is an industrial relic built of concrete, whose central space of 14 metres in diameter boasts a stage that can accommodate concerts and a wide variety of other events. Standing at a height of 1.7 from the ground level, this atypical space will be accessible via a footbridge and stairs as well as via a ramp for people with reduced mobility.
During the summer of 2022, the public will be able to enjoy a unique immersive experience presented by the Luxembourgian jazz musicians of the trio Reis-Demuth-Wiltgen and the multimedia artist Émile V. Schlesser. On a 360-degree stage, in the midst of the audience, the pianist, the double bass player and the percussionist will explore the phenomenon of ‘synesthesia’ by merging their specifically created jazz compositions with the visual artist’s ambient 3D soundscapes.