For tech gurus like Elon Musk, it is a foregone conclusion: the salvation of mankind lies in the colonisation of Mars. But is Mars really our ‘Planet B’? Composer Jennifer Walshe has been fascinated by the red planet since childhood. In her new multimedia work MARS she investigates, through the lens of her own obsession, an inflammable cocktail of themes: technology, Silicon Valley, capitalism, the climate catastrophe and our place in the universe. Welcome to Space Walshe.

Jennifer Walshe previously hit the bull’s eye with the philosophical opera TIME TIME TIME, which she developed for the Sonic Acts festival in the Muziekgebouw. For her, music is a way of exploring ideas in a critical and stimulating way. The text for MARS was written by journalist Mark O’Connell, who wrote with To Be a Machine an award-winning book on ‘transhumanism’, the idea that mankind must ‘upgrade’ itself with new technology in order to survive.

Composition MARS commissioned by Muziekgebouw and supported by Ammodo.

Text: Muziekgebouw
Photo: Blackie Bouffant